Nico Rosberg's golden run continued on Friday when he topped the times ahead of Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen and his Mercedes-GP teammate Lewis Hamilton in practice for Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix.
The German, who is 43 points ahead of defending three-time champion Hamilton in the championship standings having won the first four races of the season, clocked a best lap of 1 minute, 23.922 seconds.
This enabled him to outpace Finn Raikkonen by 0.254 seconds and Hamilton by seven-tenths, ample proof that he has the pace to claim his eighth successive triumph tomorrow, his winning run extending back to the final three races of the 2015 season.
“It’s great to be back in Europe and to be back in Spain,” said Rosberg, who won last year’s race at Circuit de Catalunya. “It was a good start for us today with two good sessions. Times were looking good on the long run and also on the shorter stints.
“I feel very comfortable with the car, with some new parts added, and they seemed to have worked well. Ferrari also looked very strong around this circuit so I’m looking forward to Saturday’s third practice as well as qualifying and to see how we perform.”
Rosberg’s confidence was as clear as Hamilton’s hesitancy.
“That wasn’t an easy day for me,” said Hamilton of his efforts on track in Barcelona.
“I struggled with the car balance throughout the day – and this afternoon, in particular, it felt really tricky to drive.
“It’s clear we have plenty of work to do this evening to get the car driving like I want it to.
“But we will get our heads down this evening and work through the data -- and I’m confident we can pull things around for tomorrow.”
The second Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel was fourth fastest, ahead of the Toro Rosso of Carlos Sainz Jr, with the Red Bull Racing car of Daniel Ricciardo sixth.
The Australian was quicker than his new teammate Max Verstappen in both practice sessions.
Verstappen had moved to the Austrian team from Toro Rosso, with Daniil Kvyat moving in the other direction.
The Dutch teenager has been impressive in F1 since making his debut last season and Red Bull are believed to have made the move as much to prevent Mercedes and Ferrari trying to sign him for the 2017 campaign.
Verstappen, 18, said of his first day of action as a Red Bull driver: “I think I can be happy. I did all the procedures, I was enjoying it.
“I was getting used to the car still, but it was all going very positive.”
Ricciardo said he was unfazed by the challenge of having a new teammate.
“I am sure about myself and I know that I can be competitive on the track and leave it there,” he said.
“I don’t take it away with me so I don’t worry about that.
“I have confidence in my ability ... I don’t want to be naive with these young guys coming up – even Daniil. I know he was quick on his day and I expect Max to be quick as well.”
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