Mercedes took advantage of an unused test day to give its new W03 another pre-launch outing in Barcelona.
Following its initial run-out at
Silverstone last week, the new Mercedes W03 has had a second pre-launch track session as the team gears up for its appearance in this week's Barcelona group test.
Nico Rosberg gave the car its first shakedown on home soil prior to it being shipped to Spain but, almost as soon as it had arrived, the W03 was unpacked and readied for both Rosberg and team-mate Michael Schumacher to give it a run on the Circuit de Catalunya. The run, which was conducted alone as no other teams were running, was made possible by Mercedes' decision not to run the full four days with its 2011-spec car in
Jerez two weeks' ago.
Schumacher opened the session on Sunday morning, before Rosberg took over in the afternoon, increasing the new car's pre-test mileage to more than 300km.
The team's official launch is scheduled to take place immediately before action gets underway at the Circuit de Catalunya on Tuesday morning, with the wraps coming off the W03 - which is rumoured to follow McLaren's philosophy on front-end design - in the pit-lane.
