Vettel tops final day of rain tire testing

Vettel fastest in the wet

Sebastian Vettel finished with the fastest time as Ferrari, Red Bull and McLaren brought combined mileage over the 2,000km mark on the second and final day of Pirelli's dedicated wet-tire test at Paul Ricard.

Pirelli continued with its full wet running early on, again under overcast skies, before simulating a drying track surface in the closing stages.

Vettel topped this phase, posting a 1:06.750, one tenth up on Red Bull's Daniil Kvyat, and a second clear of McLaren's Stoffel Vandoorne.

The distances planned for today's running were much bigger than yesterday, with longer runs to evaluate the behavior of the prototype tires in variable track conditions.

In the closing stages, Sebastian Vettel set the fastest time, with a 1.06.750, running intermediate tires. "It's always useful to drive a car," commented the German at the end of the day. "It was fun, even if, with a lot of different prototype tires, you may get different results, without knowing which tires we are testing, or if they are going to be used in the future or not.

Vettel in the 2015 Ferrari

"You can have a rough idea which tires you test and how the tires were last year, but it's not clear what's going to happen with the tires after this, even if for sure there are some results, but it's too early to say. It was dryer than yesterday, as they put less water on the track, but they provided us with very consistent conditions." Sebastian completed a total of 134 laps today, equivalent to around 473 km.

Vettel took over from Kimi Raikkonen, and Kvyat from Daniel Ricciardo, while McLaren reserve Vandoorne enjoyed a second day on track.

Vettel's outing also followed on from a simulator correlation test at Fiorano early last week, which saw the German complete laps in Ferrari's 2014-spec F14-T.

All three drivers comfortably passed the 100-lap milestone as the day wore on, bringing Pirelli's total for the two-day test session up to 659 laps, equivalent to 2,326km.

Ferrari, Red Bull and McLaren took part with their 2015 contenders.

Formula 1 teams will next be in action at the official pre-season tests, which take place at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya from February 22-25 and March 1-4.

Results

Vettel waits in garage	Vettel brakes