The second day of the first official F1 test in Jerez took place on Wednesday.  Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi handed over the car to Sergio Perez, Force India allowed Jules Bianchi a run out and Nico Rosberg took no part.

With those exceptions, we saw the same cars and drivers as we did on day one.

As was expected, quicker times were set today as more teams got round to performing some faster runs.  Michael Schumacher set a time of 1:18.561, but this was in the 2011 Mercedes fitted with 2012 tyres.

The fastest of the new cars was the Red Bull (surprise surprise) of Mark Webber with a lap of 1:19.184—half a second quicker than Kimi Raikkonen's effort which set the benchmark on day one.  Toro Rosso's Daniel Ricciardo was four tenths behind his fellow Australian in third.

They don't look quite as revolting from a high angle, do they?
Paul Gilham/Getty Images

* indicates 2011 car with 2012 tyres.

Though I'm sure a lot of us—me included—check testing times in the hope of discovering the true pace of some of the runners, we certainly haven't had that so far.  McLaren haven't even tried to show their hand, nor have Ferrari. 

And though Red Bull have done a quicker time than their rivals, we can't consider even that as representative of their real speed.

They, like everyone else, are focused on ensuring their cars actually work—not on how fast they can be pushed to go.

But Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso will be on track tomorrow. 

Though unlikely, perhaps they'll hold a little bit less back, and we might get some idea of where last season's top three are—and whether anyone else is a little bit closer.