Heading to Barcelona, Red Bull had managed to finish just one out of seven days at the top of the timesheets and that was on the very first day of pre-season testing.However, Vettel put in a late charge on Friday afternoon to move to the front of the pack, easing some concerns over the pace of Red Bull's new RB6.
The reigning World Champ, who opted not to put in many laps during the morning session when the track was wet from overnight rain, clocked a 1:24.374 to beat Ferrari's Fernando Alonso by a massive 1.111s.
According to reports, though, Vettel's time was set on the super soft Pirelli rubber while Alonso was using the harder compound.
Jaime Alguersuari had another solid day for Toro Rosso, finishing in third place, just 0.153s slower than Alonso while Kamui Kobayashi was fourth. Both drivers, though, caused stoppages during the day. Alguersuari for a spin and Kobayashi for stopping out on track in a fuel exorcise.
Jenson Button claimed fifth place for McLaren, 1.991s behind Vettel, in what was another solid but not spectacular day for the Woking-based outfit.
Paul di Resta put his Force India up into sixth place while Rubens Barrichello was seventh for Williams. However, once again there were problems with the team's FW33 as Barrichello broke down on track and had to sit in the garage as his team changed the car's engine.
Michael Schumacher, Narain Karthikeyan, Heikki Kovalainen and Jerome D'Ambrosio were next in line ahead of the two Lotus Renault drivers.
It was not a good day for Lotus Renault with the team hampered by KERS issues. Nick Heidfeld, who completed pit stop practice in the morning, handed the car over to his team-mate Vitaly Petrov. However, the Russian was only able to manage 20 laps due to the KERS problem.
Times
01. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:24.374 37 laps
02. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:25.485 + 1.111 101 laps
03. Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:25.638 + 1.264 57 laps
04. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1:25.641 + 1.267 78 laps
05. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:26.365 + 1.991 77 laps
06. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1:26.575 + 2.201 26 laps
07. Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:26.912 + 2.538 52 laps
08. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1:27.512 + 3.138 90 laps
09. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1:28.393 + 4.019 116 laps
10. Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 1:30.065 + 5.691 54 laps
11. Jerome D'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 1:30.950 + 6.576 116 laps
12. Vitaly Petrov Renault 1:35.174 + 10.800 20 laps
13. Nick Heidfeld Renault 1:44.324 + 19.950 27 laps
Source: Planet-F1
