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[racechick]

Now the Mercedes hasn't been out for ages.

EDIT: they're running again, after 'a longer than planned stoppage to work on the gearbox'

[spankyham]

Nando does a 1:23.6 2nd lap of a 13 lap run - that's quick considering he had at least 12 laps of fuel on board

[racechick]

1.22.616 now for rosberg, top of the board , with Kimi a whisker behind. Don't know what their fuels levels are.

[spankyham]

Rosberg fastest time was set on the mediums I believe and was the second of an 8 lap run.

Kimi's time was set on the 3rd lap of a 4 lap run, and like Rosberg was on mediums.

Nando's time (.3 off the Merc) was set on lap 2 of an 11 lap run on mediums.

Seb's time (a whisker off Nando's) was set on the 2nd lap of a 7 lap run on mediums.

Times posted >>here<<.

*** EDIT - Nando was on mediums not hards

[Nin-Chin]

Nico Rosberg is confident he has a much better baseline with the new Mercedes in Barcelona this week than he did at the same time last year.

Rosberg got Mercedes' second week of testing underway by setting the fastest time on the opening day, 0.007s ahead of Lotus' Kimi Raikkonen. Comparing this year's car to last year's, which won a race in China but proved problematic over the course of the year, he said the new W04 was streets ahead.

"It's a much, much better base," he said. "You can feel that the centre of gravity is lower, the aero is better, the platform is better. It feels a lot stronger. It's a pleasure to drive because it's fast and a lot faster than last year."

However, after Mercedes' first two days in testing were plagued by reliability issues, Rosberg suffered a gearbox problem on Tuesday and completed just 54 laps. He said reliability was the main area the team needed to focus on going forward.

"I didn't get many laps in and that's a bit of a pity," he said. "We need to work on that as we have a few too many reliability issues at the moment. Other than that it is going in the right direction for sure and the car feels decent out there and that's a good start."

Rosberg said tyre degradation had been high but that it was the same for all drivers in the cold conditions on Tuesday.

"It's very bad at the moment in general out there. It's massive degradation for everybody. I don't know if that's because of the cold temperatures, hopefully it is otherwise there are going to be many pit stops in Melbourne!"

[racechick]

Well that's good to hear from Nico

[CookinFlat6]

Yes very encouraging. About this tyre deg that Merc seem to struggle with, if the developments in aero and the baseline of the car help but the car is still weak there compared to the rest, I wonder if Merc could exploit the new tyres and the fact they have 2 of the quickest drivers around.

Maybe we can see the Mercs stopping more times than the rest and just trash the tyres in sprints. Lewis would love that

With Lewis and Nico it might work. I suspect we are going to see more pit stops than ever from the whole grid anyway

[Jabberwocky]

I think Lotus have the wrong drivers... They must have picked up the E20 disk when they left Enstone

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/105625

[scotty]

I think we should start keeping count of all the teams' drivers who are saying they are much happier in the new car (lots of em) and which are staying quiet.

[LewEngBridewell]

I'm finding it hard to place the new McLaren at the moment.

[scotty]

Ferrari are the question mark for me. Harder to predict if they've gained relative pace or not.

I am starting to worry about Lotus though. I think the car looks massively underdeveloped compared to most of the frontrunners and midfield. Hope i'm wrong!

[spankyham]

It's really early days yet, but, from the little I've seen of video of the cars on track I'd say the F138 and RB9 are looking very good cars so far. Merc Lotus and McLaren looking good too. Should be in for a good season's racing.

[theTruth]

Nico Rosberg is confident he has a much better baseline with the new Mercedes in Barcelona this week than he did at the same time last year.

Rosberg got Mercedes' second week of testing underway by setting the fastest time on the opening day, 0.007s ahead of Lotus' Kimi Raikkonen. Comparing this year's car to last year's, which won a race in China but proved problematic over the course of the year, he said the new W04 was streets ahead.

"It's a much, much better base," he said. "You can feel that the centre of gravity is lower, the aero is better, the platform is better. It feels a lot stronger. It's a pleasure to drive because it's fast and a lot faster than last year."

YEE-HIGH!!!!!

[CookinFlat6]

early days, but Lewis does not appear to be complaining.

keep an eye on the bookies odds for a merc driver this season

[LewEngBridewell]

So the morning session is over, and it's quite a tasty top 4:

1. Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull 1m22.197s
2. Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes 1m22.726s +0.529
3. Sergio Perez - McLaren 1m22.743s +0.546
4. Fernando Alonso - Ferrari 1m23.247s +1.050