As Formula One returned from a three-week absence, Nico Rosberg went fastest at the Circuit de Catalunya ahead of Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix.

A time of 1:26:828 was enough to see the German top the session, with team mate and Championship leader Lewis Hamilton a tenth adrift in second. It appears not a lot has changed despite the introduction of upgrades due to the three week gap between races.

Ferrari are still a second down on their rivals Mercedes, as Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen could only manage third and fourth respectively. Rosberg managed to escape a possible penalty after his W06 appeared to have crossed the pit entry line after the safety bollard, an illegal move in Formula One.

However the stewards decided not to punish Rosberg for the infringement and he now looks set to fight Hamilton for pole position in Saturday’s Qualifying session.

Mercedes boss Paddy Lowe confirmed Mercedes have brought upgrades to Spain, but told Sky Sports F1 that there’s no proof these have been successful until Qualifying. The Merc boss said: "We’ve brought several updates aerodynamically. But I don’t think that will be unusual; most teams will bring a lot of updates to this race. It’s actually more about whether you’ve brought more or less performance than the other teams. And we don’t really know that until qualifying and the race." 

The Red Bull stable all managed to finish in the top ten, however for not the first time, the Toro Rosso’s finished ahead of the Red Bull’s. Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen finished fifth and sixth respectively while Daniil Kvyat only managed seventh and Daniel Ricciardo ninth. Kvyat was testing an ultra-short nose on his RB11 but couldn’t find a way past the Toro Rosso pair, who continue to impress.

Susie Wolff had another outing in the Williams but could only manage 14th. 40 years after Lella Lombardi finished sixth at the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix, a female took to a Spanish circuit and encouragingly was under a second slower than Felipe Massa in the other FW37.

Lotus decided to rest Romain Grosjean and hand Jolyon Palmer a drive for Friday’s session, and surprisingly the Englishman out-paced fellow Lotus driver Pastor Maldonado. The Venezuelan is a former winner here, taking victory for Williams in 2012, but he is now under pressure to get results after a poor start to the 2015 season, he managed 18th quickest while Palmer was 13th.

McLaren continued to struggle, with Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button managing 15th and 16th quickest respectively. The new look MP4-30 appears not to have improved much during the break, despite an upgrade package being applied to the car. Qualifying may appear to be another embarrassing affair for the former world champions.

Running order:

1) Rosberg (Mercedes), 2) Hamilton (Mercedes), 3) Vettel (Ferrari), 4) Raikkonen (Ferrari), 5) Sainz (Toro Rosso), 6) Verstappen (Toro Rosso), 7) Kvyat (Red Bull), 8) Massa (Williams), 9) Ricciardo (Red Bull), 10) Nasr (Sauber), 11) Hulkenberg (Force India), 12) Marciello (Sauber), 13) Palmer (Lotus), 14) Wolff (Williams), 15) Alonso (McLaren), 16) Button (McLaren), 17) Perez (Force India), 18) Maldonado (Lotus), 19) Stevens (Manor), 20) Merhi (Manor)