Rubens Barrichello and Felipe Massa tussled for top honours in the morning session at Jerez, where thankfully track conditions improved to allow for plenty of dry running.
A dull and dreary start to the final day of testing saw the Formula One drivers having to contend with the light drizzle at the start of Saturday's Jerez test.
Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel set the pace in the opening hour, clocking a 1:27.764, before running into problems. The German brought out the red flag when he car ground to a halt and had to be recovered to the pits on the back of a flatbed truck.
The twenty minute break, though, did provide some good news as the rain finally stopped.
With the track drying out just a bit Lewis Hamilton leapt from the bottom of the timesheets into the P1 slot, clocking a 1:26.833, before that was overhauled by Rubens Barrichello.
The Brazilian continued to pile on the pace, extending his advantage before Ferrari's Felipe Massa nipped ahead of him with a 1:27.645.
With conditions improving, Force India reported that it is "dry in Jerez for now. Adrian says it's on the verge of being dry enough to switch to slick tyres."
And that's exactly what he did a short while later. However, Sutil wasn't the only driver to swap to slicks.
Massa also parted ways with his disintegrating intermediate tyres and went quickest by some margin. The Brazilian brought his time down to a 1:23.976.
"Finally we can run on dry tyres..." Ferrari reported on Twitter. "Already 66 laps completed by Felipe who is currently doing a long run."
Massa's ever-improving pace, which eventually saw him drop to a 1:22.641, had the chasing pack swap over to the slicks with Barrichello the next to lead the way with his 1:22.319.
Robert Kubica moved up to third place behind the battling Brazilian's, however, finished the morning 2.054s off the pace while Vettel was fourth.
Pedro de la Rosa and Jaime Alguersuari were next in line, ahead of Hamilton, who completed just 19 laps during the morning session while Sutil was eighth, as Force India opted for an early lunch during which a "planned exhaust change" took place.
Meanwhile, after a brief run in the first hour, during which he set a 1:29.768 and completed seven laps, Schumacher retreated to his Mercedes GP garage where the German waited for conditions to improve.
There was little sign of the seven-time World Champion over the next three hours as he completed only four additional laps, dropping down the order to finish P9.
"Michael will be out again in the not too distant future with the track now looking much improved as thankfully it has stayed dry," his team said.
The final runner of the day, Lucas di Grassi, didn't complete even a single timed lap as he spent all but five minutes of the morning session in the Virgin garage while the team worked on the car.
And working on the car is something Ferrari will have to do as ten minutes before lunch, the Brazilian brought out the red flags when he stopped out on track.
Unofficial Times
1. R. Barrichello Williams FW32 1:22.319 39 laps
2. F. Massa Ferrari F10 1:22.641 +0.322 95 laps
3. R. Kubica Renault R30 1:24.373 +2.054 23 laps
4. S. Vettel Red Bull Racing RB6 1:24.588 +2.269 52 laps
5. P. de la Rosa Sauber C29 1:25.039 +2.720 52 laps
6. J. Alguersuari Toro Rosso STR5 1:25.756 +3.437 67 laps
7. L. Hamilton McLaren MP4-25 1:26.023 +3.704 21 laps
8. A. Sutil Force India VJM-03 1:27.606 +5.287 37 laps
9. M. Schumacher Mercedes GP W01 1:29.768 +7.449 11 laps
Source: Planet F1
