Brits on Pole

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It was down to business on the third and last day of Barcelona testing but, even with most of the newbies on the plane home, the cars from the Red Bull stable were able to retain their dominance.

Red Bull is certainly giving its drivers wings at Barcelona this week - a Toro Rosso one-two on Monday has been followed by a complete shut-out of the top four timesheet slots on the second day of testing.

Is it that time already? The first winter testing session has kicked off in Barcelona with everyone from world rally champions to former GP2 frontrunners turning up to play on a cold but bright and sunny day.

BMW Sauber tester Christian Klien put down a marker for his team in the first full day of Jerez testing after topping the unofficial timesheets.

This weekend presented a host of options for motorsport fans - you could take your pick from DTM at Brands Hatch, BTCC at Silverstone or Superleague Formula at Donington Park. But wherever you went, you couldn’t escape the weather.

McLaren test driver Gary Paffett says he believes the DTM touring car series, in which he currently races, offers fans better value for money than Formula One.

Yeah, yeah, we know. DTM is tin-top, and we’re supposed to be about open-wheel racing. But we like an excuse to catch up with what Katherine Legge is doing.

Sebastian Vettel’s timesheet-topping performance on the first day of Jerez testing was overshadowed after a malfunctioning component on Christian Klien’s BMW injured a team mechanic.

Ferrari tester Luca Badoer topped the timesheet on the first day of Barcelona testing - but didn’t have things entirely his own way. On an opening day that featured unpredictable weather, starting sunny then gradually clouding over until a thunderstorm forced the eight teams testing to abandon the track an hour earlier than expected, BMW’s Robert Kubica and Red Bull’s David Coulthard pushed him a close second and third.

An awful lot of would-be racing drivers probably think Gary Paffett’s got it made - as McLaren’s test driver he’s got a job to die for, regularly getting his hands on one of the world’s top racing machines. On the other hand, what does it feel like to be just one step away from one of motorsport’s top jobs - piloting a car capable of winning the F1 World Championship but perpetually in the shadow of Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen, unable to actually compete?