Welcome to F1Minute, it’s the 18th February 2011.

Sebastian Vettel topped the timesheets in Barcelona today, as the third pre-season test got underway. A wet start mixed up the team programmes, with any meaningful running saved for the afternoon. Fernando Alonso posted the fastest time midway through the day but was topped by Vettel just before testing came to a close.

Renault had Vitaly Petrov and Nick Heidfeld sharing testing duties, but a KERS problem meant Petrov was kept out of the car for longer than anticipated. Rubens Barrichello was also forced to sit out a good portion of the day as repairs were made to the Williams. Jaime Alguersuari caused a red flag after an off-track excursion into the gravel, and Kamui Kobayashi also caused a stoppage by running out of fuel - although the team were expecting it to happen as they were pushing the limits.

With the track drying throughout the day, the field spread was huge - Vettel’s time was in the 1:24s, and Heidfeld at the bottom of the timesheets was almost 20 seconds slower.