Japan’s Kamui Kobayashi set the pace in the fourth and final day of the second week of pre-season testing in Barcelona before the opening Formula One race next month.

The Sauber-Ferrari driver clocked a fastest 1min 22.312sec during 63 laps, ahead of Venezuela’s Pastor Maldonado in the Williams-Renault (1:22.561) and Britain’s Jenson Button in the McLaren-Mercedes (1:23.200).

“I’m quite happy,” said Kobayashi. “We achieved a very good mileage today. The set up changes we did in the morning meant an improvement in lap times, which, of course, is very positive.

“There is still a lot of work to do in terms of understanding the car and the different tyre compounds at different fuel levels, but we are working in the right direction. I think it was a good test for us.”

A final series of testing will be held, again in Barcelona, on March 1-4, before the teams travel to Australia for the season opener in Melbourne on March 18.

World champions Red Bull and Ferrari have been given permission to put back the start of their final testing by a day, citing logistical reasons.

Mark Webber was sixth quickest in his Red Bull car.