The Finn, who had worked through a programme of five-lap simulations on soft and medium rubber during the early hours, completed a number of single-lap runs in the final hour and set the pace in 1m22.030s - the best time achieved at Barcelona during pre-season running.

Raikkonen, who finished the morning with 41 laps to his name, was 0.220s faster than home hero Fernando Alonso, who completed 63.

Alonso's best time also came on soft tyres, backing up claims that while the Ferrari F2012 may not have great long-run pace, its single-lap speed is not in question. He focused on short runs; his longest being a pair of four-lap stints.

Bruno Senna was third fastest for Williams, the Brazilian having his final run in the car before handing over to Pastor Maldonado for the afternoon. Force India's Nico Hulkenberg and Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi were next up.

Sixth was Lewis Hamilton, the McLaren driver making up for the time lost to a wet circuit and Jenson Button's hydraulics problems on Saturday by completing 60 laps - more than anyone other than Alonso.

Seventh, after a late run on supersofts, was Vitaly Petrov's Caterham, while Michael Schumacher was one spot further back in his Mercedes, having run extensively on softs.

Daniel Ricciardo was ninth quickest, but was only 1.1s off the pace. Significantly, however, he completed the longest run of the morning – 11 laps – on mediums and suffered only a 1s drop-off in performance during it.

By contrast, Senna's Williams – completing a 10-lap run on the same tyres at the same time – lost 2.5s of pace during the stint.

Sebastian Vettel, trying the upgraded Red Bull RB8 for the first time, spent most of the morning in the pits and completed only five flying laps. Vettel's morning was hampered by a damaged front wing.

Morning times:

Pos  Driver         Team            Time                Laps
 1.  Raikkonen      Lotus           1m22.030s           41
 2.  Alonso         Ferrari         1m22.250s  +0.220   63
 3.  Senna          Williams        1m22.296s  +0.266   53
 4.  Hulkenberg     Force India     1m22.312s  +0.282   45
 5.  Kobayashi      Sauber          1m22.386s  +0.356   56
 6.  Hamilton       McLaren         1m22.430s  +0.400   60
 7.  Petrov         Caterham        1m22.795s  +0.765   43
 8.  Schumacher     Mercedes        1m22.939s  +0.909   57
 9.  Ricciardo      Toro Rosso      1m23.393s  +1.363   53
10.  Vettel         Red Bull        1m23.608s  +1.578   15

Autosport.com