After showing their true pace on Friday and Saturday, Mercedes were happy to return to their testing schedule on the final day of testing.
This left Nico Rosberg down in 7th place on the timing sheets, but with 148 laps of running under his belt.
With Mercedes not interested in doing any qualifying simulations it was left to Williams to set the fastest time of the day with Valtteri Bottas setting a time of 1minute 23.063s.
‘It was a really good day and a great way to finish the test, One of the main points we have learnt is that the FW37 is very reliable. The car we are taking to Melbourne is very competitive and should make for an interesting start to the season.’ Bottas told formula1.com.
Just four tenths behind was the Ferrari of four-time Formula One World Champion Sebastian Vettel who set the second fastest time of the day.
It was another impressive showing for Sauber with Felipe Nasr only a second off the pace of Bottas but also completing 159 laps, the most of anyone on the final day.
It was another excellent day for Force India with Sergio Perez getting his first and only day behind the wheel of the new VJM08.
Perez completed 130 laps, with Force India continuing to show their reliability straight out of the box with no gremlins causing concern.
They were also able to improve their performance with a time of 1minute 25.113s being good enough to get the Force India ahead of both Mercedes and Lotus who were running the same power-unit.
Perez told the media: ‘My first day in the car has been a good one, with a very high number of laps and a good atmosphere in the team, It’s no secret that we have some catch-up to do but I am optimistic: the team has a clear direction to work towards and we have been able to collect a large amount of data in such a short time.’
It was another disappointing day for McLaren Honda.
Jenson Button set the second slowest time of the day en-route to completing just 30 laps. This time a sensor problem proved to be the issue for McLaren.
‘Looking back at the last four weeks, our winter test programme has been difficult, The lack of mileage means we won’t be as ready as we’d have liked, but we can take away the positive that all the running and data gathering we’ve done have confirmed that we’re achieving the targets we set ourselves.
‘Even if it’s likely to be a difficult start to the season, we know we can develop hard and fast, and that we’ll surely unlock the huge potential that lies within the McLaren-Honda MP4-30.’ McLaren racing director Eric Boullier said as the team packed up in preparation for Australia.
Unofficial Sunday testing times from Barcelona:
1. Valtteri Bottas, Williams, 1m 23.063s
2. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 1m 23.469s
3. Felipe Nasr, Sauber, 1m 24.023s
4. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, 1m 24.527s
5. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, 1m 24.638s
6. Sergio Perez, Force India, 1m 25.113s
7. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1m 25.186s
8. Jenson Button, McLaren, 1m 25.327s
9. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus, 1m 28.272s
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