Vettel Tops First Test of the Season, in Valencia [Gallery]

Red Bull have began their preparation for the 2011 Formula 1 championship the same way they ended the 2010 season, on top of the classification. After a limited programme in the morning, when he had done only 15 laps until approximately 1 PM, reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel spent much of the afternoon at the wheel of his Red Bull RB7 and was the first to drop below the 1:14 minute mark on Valencia's Ricardo Tormo circuit.

After 93 laps of running on the Spanish circuit on Tuesday, the German has set a best time of 1:13.769, some 0.169 seconds ahead of second placed racer in the timing reports, Force India's Nico Hulkenberg. The latter practically headed a group of 3 drivers who had spent the entire day racing 2010-spec cars, with Gary Paffett (McLaren MP4-25) and Paul di Resta (Force India VJM03) coming in 3rd and 4th.

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, who began the afternoon with the best time of the pack, had to settle for 5th place overall, almost 8 tenths of a second behind Vettel. Although his Ferrari F150 did the most laps of the day (97), the Spaniard had a troubled start on Tuesday – experiencing technical issues in the morning – and caused a premature finish of the testing session, when he stalled his car on the track some 3 minutes before the end.

Alonso was eventually able to restart his challenger and reach the pits, but only after the remaining time of the session had expired.

Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi did some 68 laps yesterday for an overall 6th place (still, more than 1.8 seconds away from Vettel), while Jerome D'Ambrosio completed his first run with Virgin's interim car in an impressive 7th place.

Mercedes GP was the only team which experienced an undesirable start of testing, as Rosberg's W02 suffered a hydraulic leak and stopped on the start/finish straight early in the morning. The team's mechanics were only able to repair his car for some afternoon running, which was performed by Michael Schumacher.

After 15 laps on the Spanish track, the German ended the day with the best time of 1:16.450, one tenths behind Vitaly Petrov on his innovative Renault R31, while Rosberg had to settle for the poorest lap time of the pack, 1:19.930 (recorded in the morning).

Here are the complete times of yesterday's testing session in Valencia.

01. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull-Renault)                                               1:13.769
02. Nico Hulkenberg (Force India-Mercedes)                                       1:13.938
03. Gary Paffett (McLaren-Mercedes)                                                  1:14.292
04. Paul di Resta (Force India-Mercedes)                                            1:14.461
05. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari)                                                               1:14.553
06. Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber-Ferrari)                                                  1:15.621
07. Jerome D'Ambrosio (Virgin-Cosworth)                                            1:16.003
08. Vitaly Petrov (Renault)                                                                     1:16.351
09. Michael Schumacher (Mercedes)                                                    1:16.450
10. Jaime Alguersuari (Toro Rosso-Ferrari)                                           1:17.214
11. Rubens Barrichello (Williams-Cosworth)                                          1:17.335
12. Narain Karthikeyan (HRT-Cosworth)                                                1:18.020
13. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes)                                                                1:19.930