Nico Rosberg has become the latest driver to end a pre-season test day quickest overall, posting a super-quick lap late on the third day of testing at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya.
In a day that started off in damp conditions, the German outpaced Renault’s Vitaly Petrov, while Lewis Hamilton endured another reliability-afflicted day, but still managed to be third-quickest at the end of the day’s play.
Almost three-tenths slower than Rosberg was Vitaly Petrov, who missed much of the early wet running before ramping up his effort in the afternoon, when the bulk of his 90-odd laps were logged. Similar to Rosberg, his fastest time came by dint of a qualifying simulation.
Despite his spin in the wet, Pastor Maldonado took his Williams to fourth-fastest on his first outing in the car at Barcelona, although he was almost a full second adrift of Hamilton’s fastest lap, and suffered a loss of track time with an alternator problem.
Jarno Trulli took his Lotus to sixth-fastest, ahead of Pérez’s Sauber and Adrian Sutil’s Force India, although he lost a lot of track time with a water leak in his Renault engine.
It was the 30-year-old Swiss driver’s first F1 outing since 2006 as a Friday driver for the Midland team, and he acquitted himself well over his 39 laps, lapping within 1.6 seconds of eleventh-placed Timo Glock.
The final day of the four-day test session kicks off on Monday at 9am local time.
[Images via GP Update, LAT & Sutton Images]
Barcelona Pre-Season Test (Day 3) Lap Times:
Driver | Team | Time | Laps | ||
1. | Nico Rosberg | ![]() |
Mercedes GP W02 | 1:23.168 | 92 |
2. | Vitaly Petrov | ![]() |
Renault R31 | + 0.295 | 93 |
3. | Lewis Hamilton | ![]() |
McLaren Mercedes MP4-26 | + 0.690 | 93 |
4. | Pastor Maldonado | ![]() |
Williams Cosworth FW33 | + 1.647 | 60 |
5. | Mark Webber | ![]() |
Red Bull Renault RB7 | + 1.827 | 139 |
6. | Jarno Trulli | ![]() |
Lotus Renault T128 | + 2.286 | 48 |
7. | Sergio Pérez | ![]() |
Sauber Ferrari C30 | + 2.389 | 115 |
8. | Adrian Sutil | ![]() |
Force India Mercedes VJM04 | + 2.552 | 102 |
9. | Sébastien Buemi | ![]() |
Toro Rosso Ferrari STR6 | + 2.987 | 31 |
10. | Felipe Massa | ![]() |
Ferrari F150th Italia | + 3.340 | 123 |
11. | Timo Glock | ![]() |
Virgin Racing Cosworth MVR-02 | + 3.430 | 97 |
12. | Giorgio Mondini | ![]() |
HRT Cosworth F110* | + 5.010 | 39 |
13. | Daniel Ricciardo | ![]() |
Toro Rosso Ferrari STR6 | + 5.161 | 42 |
14. | Narain Karthikeyan | ![]() |
HRT Cosworth F110* | + 7.554 | 32 |
* Denotes interim-spec or 2010 model
Richard Bailey
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