» Räikkönen fastest on penultimate testing day

Kimi Räikkönen set the fastest lap seen in testing in 2016 for Ferrari, before completing race simulations in the afternoon session.

The Finn started the day trialling the FIA’s halo cockpit protection system, a semi-enclosed canopy the governing body wants to install on all cars in 2017. Räikkönen set his fastest time on the ultra-soft tyre during the morning session, going 0.045 seconds quicker than teammate Sebastian Vettel’s previous benchmark he set on the second day of the first test.

Ferrari’s race simulation times were competitive with Mercedes’ simulations the team carried out Monday and Tuesday.

Felipe Massa was just under half a second behind in second position also running the ultra-soft compound tyre, narrowly edging out the other two ultra-soft runners in the field of Nico Hulkenberg in the Force India and Toro Rosso’s Max Verstappen.

Verstappen took the honours of the highest lap count, completing 159 laps around the Circuit de Catalunya which was 15 laps more than the Mercedes pair of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg were able to achieve.

Rosberg finished the day in fifth position while his teammate was further down in 11^th and 3.7 seconds off the pace, both drivers set their times on the medium tyre.

Sauber’s Felipe Nasr finished his session two seconds off the pace on the soft tyre with 116 laps to his name. The Brazilian was two-tenths of a second quicker than Fernando Alonso in the McLaren-Honda setting his best time on the super softs.

Alonso had a productive day in the McLaren, completing a heavy-fuel race simulation as well as running a quick stint on the ultra-soft tyre.

Pascal Wehrlein placed his Manor in eighth position, the team’s best lap time of testing so far as they were 2.148 seconds off Raikkonen’s pace. Red Bull’s Daniil Kvyat was two-tenths of a second behind in ninth with 121 laps.

Jolyon Palmer enjoyed a better session than his previous days in the car, completing a total of 98 laps compared to the total of 79 in two days he ran during last week’s test.

Haas again finished last after Romain Grosjean experienced a number offs, bringing out the red flag three times. Grosjean finished the day with 78 laps after the team managed to get on top of the turbo issue which plagued yesterday’s day of testing.

2016 Second Pre-season Test – Day 3 Unofficial Results
	Driver	Team / Entry	Laps	Best Time
1.	Kimi Räikkönen	Scuderia Ferrari SF16-H	136	1:22.765
2.	Felipe Massa	Williams Martini Racing Mercedes FW38	119	+ 0.428
3.	Nico Hülkenberg	Sahara Force India Mercedes VJM09	137	+ 0.486
4.	Max Verstappen	Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari STR11	159	+ 0.617
5.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 W07	81	+ 1.361
6.	Felipe Nasr	Sauber F1 Team Ferrari C35	116	+ 1.995
7.	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Honda MP4-31	118	+ 2.105
8.	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor Racing Mercedes MRT5	48	+ 2.148
9.	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull Racing Tag Heuer RB12	121	+ 2.376
10.	Jolyon Palmer	Renault Sport F1 Team RS16	98	+ 3.459
11.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 W07	63	+ 3.723
12.	Romain Grosjean	Haas F1 Ferrari VF-16	78	+ 4.431