• Valencia Test - Day Three

Kubica finishes top of the pile

Robert Kubica on his way to the fastest time of the day © Getty Images

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• News:
• Massa session cut short by Ferrari fire
  
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• Alonso on top in Valencia
  
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• Vettel ends opening day on top
  

• Drivers:
• Jenson Button
• |
• Robert Kubica
• |
• Adrian Sutil
• |
• Jarno Trulli

Robert Kubica finished the final day of the first pre-season test at Valencia at the top of the timesheets and with the fastest lap of the week.

The Renault R31 has been at the centre of attention all week with its innovative exhaust design, which is a development of last year's blown diffuser. The exhausts protrude from the front of the sidepods, with the aim of feeding the whole of the underbody with hot gasses and speeding up the flow of air from the diffuser at the rear.

In the first two days the results were inconclusive, but Kubica's time of 1:13.144 will be a shot in the arm for the team that has also struggled with a few teething problems. However, as always in testing, the times are not necessarily representative and several drivers have said they expect their cars to behave differently on other tracks.

Adrian Sutil was second fastest in the 2010 Force India, ahead of Jenson Button's 2010 McLaren. Both were focussing on the Pirelli tyres and they racked up over 100 laps each. Several drivers have noted higher tyre degradation over the week, but Pirelli insists the new rubber is working as planned and the cool weather conditions over the past few days mean the results should be treated with care.

Mark Webber's Red Bull was fourth fastest. It was the first proper running he's had in the car after a problem with the pedal set-up kept him in the garage for most of the afternoon. His time was 0.792 seconds off Kubica and 0.081 up on Felipe Massa in fifth.

Felipe Massa clambers out of his Ferrari after it caught fire 35 minutes into the final day of testing © Getty Images

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Massa's day got off to a terrible start in the morning when after 12 laps he spun on his own oil and the rear of the Ferrari caught fire. He was out of action until just before 3pm, but after that he increased his tally of laps to 76 and set a 1:14.017 in the process.

Lotus' chances next year remain a mystery as Jarno Trulli completed 38 laps in the new T128 but never crossed the start line twice consecutively, instead taking to the pits. As a result he did not set a time. However, Lotus will have its own private test session on Friday to further asses the new car.

The day brought an end to an action-packed but predictably inconclusive first week of testing. Eight of the 2011 cars have been launched with McLaren's unveiling set for Friday and the Force India and Virgin scheduled before the next test in Jerez.

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