Nico Rosberg was the man to beat on the penultimate day of pre-season testing as the Merc GP's driver qualy style lap times put him 0.7s up on his closest rival.
With the threat of rain looming over the circuit, the drivers were quickly into action with Nico Rosberg taking the lead.
The Mercedes GP driver put in four short qualifying style runs, which consisted of an out-lap, two flying laps, and an in-lap, to post a 1:21.193. He then lowered that to a 1:20.891, a 1:20.824 and finally a 1:20.686, which was just 0.072s shy of the week's best time, which was set by Nico Hulkenberg on Friday.
Others, though, did not have as much luck - or track time - during the opening hour and a half as Jenson Button brought out the day's first red flag when his MP4-25 stopped at Turn 11 on his very first lap out of the pits.
And with the rain coming down midway through the morning, many of the drivers initially retreated to the pits before venturing out to conduct race simulations.
One drivers putting in a race sim in the wet was Rubens Barrichello. However, his run ended with his Williams beached in the gravel at Turn 5.
The hour-long lunch break gave the track some time to dry and Button, who had been slowest of all after missing the dry period in the morning, soon started working his way up the leaderboard.
The dry track also prompted Red Bull Racing to finally release Sebastian Vettel, who like Button was also quick to make his mark on the timesheets, slotting in behind the Brit in seventh place.
Felipe Massa moved up to third place in his Ferrari F10 while Vitaly Petrov took fourth place for Renault ahead of Adrian Sutil. Force India said of their driver: "Seems quite happy, says the car feels 'consistent."
Meanwhile, many of the teams turned their attention to long distance runs, which saw Button producing high 1:25s to Massa's early-1:26s. Toro Rosso's Sebastien Buemi was in the late 1:26s during his race sim while Kamui Kobayashi was in the early 1:27s.
However, once Massa had pitted for new tyres before continuing his run, the Ferrari driver dropped to the 1:22s, a similar pace to Rosberg's after he too stopped for fresh rubber.
With an hour left on the clock, Timo Glock finally completed a lap, posting a 1:31.976, which he soon whittled down to a 1:30.814. The German's lack of running on Saturday was due firstly to the weather and the team's decision to focus on pit stops in the morning and then a "leaking fuel o-ring."
Glock's first outing, though, came to an end when Rosberg came to a halt out on track. No sooner had the action resumed than Buemi stopped at the final corner.
The session restarted with 18 minutes on the clock and flurry of activity. Barrichello improved to third place while Button took fourth and then third.
And then came the day's fifth red flag, another belonging to Barrichello, which brought testing to a close for the day.
Unofficial Times
1. N. Rosberg Mercedes GP W01 1:20.686 128 laps
2. S. Buemi Toro Rosso STR5 1:21.413 +0.727 106 laps
3. J. Button McLaren MP4-25 1:21.450 +0.764 105 laps
4. R. Barrichello Williams FW32 1:21.975 +1.289 100 laps
5. F. Massa Ferrari F10 1:22.344 +1.658 115 laps
6. V. Petrov Renault R30 1:22.523 +1.837 68 laps
7. A. Sutil Force India VJM-03 1:22.606 +1.920 61 laps
8. S. Vettel Red Bull Racing RB6 1:23.123 +2.437 51 laps
9. J. Trulli Lotus F1 T127 1:25.059 +4.373 102 laps
10. K. Kobayashi Sauber C29 1:26.216 +5.530 105 laps
11. T. Glock Virgin Racing VR-01 1:26.305 +5.619 31 laps
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