Big crowd gathers for final Jerez test day

Until a few spots of rain worried a few faces on the pitwall, the F1 circus was enjoying a second consecutive day of fully dry conditions on the last day of the winter’s penultimate test session.

With Fernando Alonso in action for Ferrari, the arrival of the weekend, and the mainly blue skies, a big crowd gathered at the Jerez circuit on Saturday, scene of eight days of recent group testing.

In similar conditions, Friday’s fastest was Mark Webber, whose Red Bull was nearly a full second quicker than Alonso and the rest of the field.

The Australian played down the feat.

“In Malaysia (for the third race) we will not be talking about the second test in Jerez,” said Webber.

“Things change fast.”

At the time of writing on Saturday, Jenson Button and Renault’s Robert Kubica had beaten Webber’s Friday time.

And after following some rival cars on track on Friday, McLaren’s Button thought Ferrari has currently the best car.

“If you look at their runs today, they’re very consistent,” said the Briton.

“I think they have better consistency than anyone at the moment.”

Also in action on Saturday are Sauber, Virgin, Williams, Toro Rosso and Force India, while Jarno Trulli finally made his debut in the new Lotus car.

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