• Barcelona Testing - Day Three

Rosberg fastest after Saturday washout

Nico Rosberg recorded a quick lap in the early morning © Sutton Images

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• Drivers:
• Nico Rosberg

• Teams:
• Alfa Romeo
• |
• Ferrari
• |
• McLaren
• |
• Mercedes
• |
• Racing Point
• |
• Red Bull
• |
• Renault
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• Team Lotus
• |
• Toro Rosso
• |
• Virgin
• |
• Williams

• Picture Gallery:
• Latest images from Barcelona

Day Three Gallery

Nico Rosberg took advantage of a dry track on the morning of the penultimate day of pre-testing to set the fastest time in his Mercedes.

Rain after an hour and a half of running at the Circuit de Catalunya, meant Rosberg's time was protected for the rest of the day by worsening track conditions. Towards the end of the session the drivers were again able to use slick tyres and Rosberg actually went slightly quicker through the first sector than on his morning run. However, a red flag caused by Rubens Barrichello's Williams brought a premature end to the session just as the times looked set to tumble.

It was the second stoppage caused by Barrichello, after he earlier spun into the gravel trap when the rain was at its worst. He finished fourth overall behind Torro Rosso's Sebastien Buemi in second and McLaren's Jenson Button in third. Button set the fastest lap of the afternoon with a 1:21.450, but for the most part drivers were concentrating on longer heavy-fuel runs.

Felipe Massa was fifth fastest, and despite his team ruing the conditions over Twitter all day, he completed a full race simulation in the F10. Ferrari appeared to be relatively happy ahead of another day with Massa at the wheel on Sunday. Vitaly Petrov was sixth fastest in the Renault, and was the quickest man on the track at one stage as he opted for two-lap sprints over longer runs. On Sunday, Renault will bring an update to the car that Robert Kubica thinks will produce a marked improvement to the R30's pace.

Jenson Button stops for wet tyres © Sutton Images

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Adrian Sutil was seventh fastest in the Force India ahead of Sebastian Vettel in the Red Bull. Vettel failed to register a lap all morning after stopping on track and only completed 51 laps in total. But there is always someone worse off than you, and in Vettel's case it was Timo Glock, who didn't complete a flying lap until the final hour. Despite being rooted to the bottom of the timesheets, Virgin seemed unconcerned and was happy with the data it gathered performing practice starts and systems checks in the morning.

Virgin's closest competitor Lotus enjoyed a successful day of reliability testing, with Jarno Trulli racking up 102 laps in total. He clocked the ninth fastest time overall ahead of Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi.

The final day of pre-testing will take place in Barcelona on Sunday.

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