Problems for Red Bull and Ferrari … quick times for lowly Lotus and Sauber.
If Formula One testing is mirrored in the Australian Grand Prix starting grid, an intriguing season lies ahead.
But, as usual, the truth is hard to uncover.
Those at the top often run low fuel loads to produce eye-catching laps aimed at impressing potential sponsors.
And the traditional frontrunners are rarely happy, complaining about issues which magically disappear the first day they go racing.
But the optimistic will hope some of the results on show in Spain in the pre-season will translate into a more closely-contested year.
Ferrari have complained the loudest, insisting they are incapable of a podium in Melbourne while Red Bull seem to have had some genuine problems.
And there is no arguing with the fastest first and last day laps uncorked by the returning Finn Kimi Raikkonen in his Lotus and the speed of the talented Mexican Sauber driver Sergio Perez.
McLaren and Mercedes remain somewhere in the middle, happy with their development but wary of everyone except the tailenders.
Mark Webber said Red Bull had “a lot of work to do” while his teammate, world champion Sebastian Vettel, had gearbox problems and an off-track excursion in his first experience with the revised RB8.
Vettel said it was unclear who the benchmark team in Australia would be.
As Ferrari’s technical director Pat Fry ruled out a podium position in Melbourne, the team closed ranks and banned their drivers from talking to the media.
Much of the problems lie with Ferrari’s failed attempt to copy Red Bull and use exhaust gasses in a creative way to help downforce after changes in the rules banned their incorporation into designs from 2011.
Raikkonen, who won the 2007 championship for Ferrari, is back after a two-year absence and driving now for Lotus.
He has warned against reading anything into his fastest lap time but says he is feeling positive.
“Of course, the fastest time at the end of the day looks good but no-one will know how fast any of the cars are until we get to qualifying at Albert Park,” Raikkonen said.
McLaren’s Jenson Button believes Sauber will be “competitive” at Albert Park, alerted to the team’s promise by the work of Perez who set his quick time on soft tyres rather than the grippier super-softs.
“They’ve done a great job and they’ve got reliability. So it’s good to see some smaller teams are competitive, we just hope they’re not too competitive,” Button said.
Like most, the Englishman is wary of Red Bull, saying he thought they still have pace to show despite not challenging for the headline lap times during the final test.
“I think the Red Bull – my opinion is that they’re running quite a bit of fuel,” Button said.
“I think they’ve made improvements as well. As always Red Bull don’t want to show their hand. It’s all a guess so it’s better just to concentrate on what we’re doing.”
Mercedes team boss Ross Brawn believes everything is in place for the squad to take a significant step forward over its 2011 form this year.
Last year there was a lot of resource soaked up fixing problems with the car, so we have certainly moved a long way in 12 months,” Brawn said.
Asked where he felt Mercedes currently stood in the pecking order, Brawn said the only certainty was that the frontrunners had moved closer together.