Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel took advantage of a new ultrasoft tire to propel himself back to the top of the timesheets on a morning of fast times on the second day of pre-season testing in Barcelona. Vettel was also fastest in Monday's first day of testing as Ferrari looks set to live up to expectations it can challenge Mercedes' dominance of the sport for the past two years. Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo also used tire manufacturer Pirelli's fastest tire to get second fastest, but was seven tenths down on Vettel's flying lap of 1min 22:810sec. However, once again Mercedes was arguably the most impressive performers as Nico Rosberg completed 81 laps and went within 0.2 seconds of his qualifying lap to land pole position at the same circuit for last season's Spanish Grand Prix on slower medium tires. The German giant has prioritized miles over times early, but Rosberg also went nearly half a second quicker than teammate and defending world champion Lewis Hamilton on his marathon 156 lap run Monday. The McLaren-Honda partnership had another busy morning off the track with the news chief motorsport officer Yasuisha Arai will be replaced by Yusuke Hasegawa before the first race of the season next month. On the track, more progress was made as Fernando Alonso logged 71 laps before lunch. However, the MP4-31 was still well short on speed as the two-time world champion was 10th fastest behind F1 newbies Haas and rookies Pacal Wehrlein in the Manor and Jolyon Palmer in the recently returned Renualt. Vettel believes he can end Mercedes and Hamilton's domination of the sport to land the Italian giant first drivers' championship in eight years. The German won the only three races not won by defending world champion Hamilton or his Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg last season. Indeed, Mercedes' dominance in winning 32 of 38 Grand Prixs in the last two seasons has led to calls for rules changes to increase competition, whilst F1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone claimed the sport was "the worst it has ever been" Monday. However, Vettel is hopeful of pushing Hamilton and Rosberg all the way this season. "Not just for the fans but for myself and the whole team we'd love to fight for the title until the very end and have a decent chance," he said. "Obviously last year we had a surprising year which was very good for us, especially for the atmosphere and motivation of the team, and hopefully we can carry that into this year. "Naturally, if you finish second in the constructors' championship you want to make that final step. It would be great for us and everyone else bar Mercedes." — Agencies
