Blue skies as Barcelona F1 test begins

Crowd favoutrite Fernando Alonso in action during the first day of the Barcelona F1 test

Feb.25 (GMM) With a few minutes to go until the final group test of the 2010 pre-season begins, the early morning skies above Barcelona are sunny and the Spanish tarmac is dry.

Mark Webber and Red Bull Racing RB6 practice pitstop in Barcelona

The weather should remain good throughout Thursday’s running, with similar conditions forecast for Friday.

Day three of the four day test on Saturday, however, could be disrupted by one or two showers, even though the outlook is not as bad as it seemed earlier this week.

Sunday, to mark exactly two weeks until the 2010 world champion begins 5,000 kilometres away in the Kingdom of Bahrain, should be another dry day at the Circuit de Catalunya.

Only USF1 and Campos are missing from the test this week, and the star of the local crowd on Thursday will be Fernando Alonso at the wheel of the Ferrari.

2009 world champion Jenson Button will be in action for McLaren, with the likes of Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton to wait until Friday to begin their final pre-season preparations.

Barcelona driver schedule from 25th to 28th February:

Team	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Ferrari Force India Lotus McLaren Mercedes Red Bull Renault Sauber Toro Rosso Virgin Williams	Alonso Liuzzi Fauzy Button Rosberg Webber Petrov De la Rosa Alguersuari Lucas di Grassi Hulkenberg	Alonso Liuzzi Trulli Hamilton Schumacher Vettel Petrov De la Rosa Alguersuari TBC Hulkenberg	Massa Sutil Trulli Button Rosberg Vettel Kubica Kobayashi Buemi TBC Barrichello	Massa Sutil Kovalainen Hamilton Schumacher Webber Kubica Kobayashi Buemi TBC Barrichello