However, a hydraulic issue midway through the morning limited Alonso's track time to 25 laps, with the F2012 emerging again at about 12:20 local time. He was joined on track by fellow big-name drivers Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso, the latter drawing a large crowd in the grandstand opposite the Ferrari garage. It was Hamilton's first morning in the McLaren MP4-27 and he completed 36 laps with a best time of 1:19.464.

By lunch his best time was a 1:18.419, trumping Michael Schumacher's best time in the 2011 Mercedes on Wednesday and over a second clear of the next fastest man, Lewis Hamilton. Grosjean impressed his pit wall by getting on the pace immediately on a brand new set of medium tyres, with trackside operations director Alan Permane tweeting, 'RG 1st set new tyres 18.9. The lap was nearly a second faster than his team-mate's best effort on Wednesday and 0.806s faster than early-morning pacesetter Romain Grosjean in the Lotus E20, which was the fastest of the 2012 cars. Rosberg spent a morning in the car on Tuesday before handing over to Michael Schumacher, but came back in fine form to set by far the fastest time of the test so far with a 1:17.613. Nico Rosberg set a new fastest time at Jerez on Thursday as he returned to the cockpit of last year's Mercedes W02.

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