By Ian Lockwood
February 12 2010

Sebastian Vettel drove Red Bull Racing’s 2010 championship challenger, the RB6, for the first time today, as he took over from Mark Webber on day three of the current four-day test in Jerez.

After an initial run on dry tyres, Sebastian was forced to use intermediate and extremes for the rest of the day as wet weather set in from 9.45am. The team’s plan was to focus on aero-testing, but progress was hampered by deteriorating weather.

By 4.15pm, conditions were so wet on track that Red Bull Racing, in line with the other teams testing, decided to end the session early. Despite the weather, the car ran without any problems today.

Sebastian Vettel said: “After three months, it was good to come back and drive the car – it felt OK and we didn’t have any big issues. Obviously the weather is not ideal for us to find out more about the car, but we knew the rain was coming so we didn’t mess around this morning and went straight out to do some laps. It then rained all day, but you could face these conditions in a grand prix, so it’s important to do laps in the wet. Overall, we didn’t do enough because of the weather, but I’m pretty happy.”

Sebastian will be driving the RB6 again tomorrow for the last day of this current pre-season test.

Driver: Sebastian Vettel; Car: RB6-01; Laps: 59; Best time: 1.21.783; Circuit length: 4.423 km; Fastest lap: J. Alguersuari – 1:19.919