In the words of Swedish rock group, “Europe,” it’s the final countdown.” Eleven teams began a four day test in Barcelona, the last session of the winter, before the serious business begins in Bahrain in a couple of weeks.

With Jaime and two other Spanish drivers on track today, the crowds began queuing to get in well before the start of the action at nine o’clock, while members of Jaime’s Fan Club soon had a banner hanging from the grandstand opposite the pits. He gave them plenty to see, as he completed 111 laps, the most of any driver today. The morning was dedicated to set-up work on the STR5, while in the afternoon, the team evaluated a new braking system. Throughout the day, the car ran on just one of the three Bridgestone compounds available here.

“It was encouraging to have another trouble free day, completing a high mileage,” said Jaime Alguersuari. “We learned a lot doing long runs on the Soft compound tyre and I’m looking forward to tackling a different programme tomorrow.”

Alguersuari has one more day in the cockpit, before Sebastien Buemi takes over for Saturday and Sunday.