Jerez Day 4: Lewis Top as Jamie Goes from Hero to Zero

McLaren caught the headlines on day 4 but this was down to the weather, what impressed me more was that Virgin racing finally seem to be up and running.

For any Hamilton fans it was good to see the 2008 champion set the fastest lap today; this means that the McLaren definitely has some pace. However, he didn't spend all day there so the time was probably a late glory run - simply stopping anyone else from having the Jerez headlines.

Adrian Sutil was the person on top for most of the day, backing up the assertion that this year's VJM 03 is a good improvement on its predecessor.

Yet again Barrichello put in lots of laps in the Williams and yet again the team seem to be there or there abouts on pace. It will be interesting to see just how well they do.

Kubica gave Renault a few more smiles by putting himself fourth today. Surely his time was helped by both Ferrari and Mercedes having minor problems.

Indeed it was Schumacher in the Mercedes who was next up. He has declared himself happy with the running today but it is clear that the team doesn't have the performance advantage it enjoyed at the start of 2009.

Vettel and Massa followed which is interesting because I expect both the Red Bull and Ferrari to be in the title race next year (not 6th and 7th). The only thing that I can offer is that Ferrari took it slightly easier and Red Bull are going through the initiall motions that most teams went through last week.

De la Rosa was next up - the only time that the Sauber hasn't been in contention for a top lap time. It seems that today wasn't about glory runs but putting laps on the board. the whole team will hope that this isn't their genuine position.

So, to the final two. Having been near to the top all week, one would have thought that the Toro Rosso would easily have been above the Virgin team. However, today was somewhat of a breakthrough; the VR-01 set the 9th fastest time and completed 63 laps. This is revolutionary from a team that had ran 20 laps at most before this.

Despite doing 98 laps, Alguersuari was at the bottom of the time sheets. I can only assume that he ran heavily today but even so, it doesn't look good being beaten by the new team.

My driver of the day? Di Grassi. Simply to give the new team some credit after the struggles of the last few days.

1. L. Hamilton  McLaren MP4-25  1:19.583  113 laps

2. A. Sutil  Force India VJM-03  1:20.180  84 laps
3. R. Barrichello  Williams FW32  1:20.341  90 laps
4. R. Kubica  Renault R30  1:20.358  85 laps
5. M. Schumacher  Mercedes GP W01  1:20.613  84 laps
6. S. Vettel  Red Bull Racing RB6  1:21.203  90 laps
7. F. Massa  Ferrari F10  1:21.485  160 laps
8. P. de la Rosa  Sauber C29  1:22.134  105 laps
9. L. Di Grassi  Virgin Racing VR-01  1:22.912  63 laps
10. J. Alguersuari  Toro Rosso STR5  1:24.072  98 laps