Circuit de Catalunya: 2013 Testing Day Three

Local hero Fernando Alonso topped the timesheets on day three of this week's pre-season test at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona on Thursday.

Despite very cool conditions throughout the first four hours of running, Alonso set a best time of 1:21.875 as he tried out the soft compound Pirelli tyres for the first time. Thursday was the double champion's final day in the F138 car this week, after having his first run in it only on Tuesday, with Brazilian Felipe Massa testing on Friday.

Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg clocked the second-quickest time of the day and, like Alonso, did it on a short run before lunch when his C32 was fitted with soft tyres. Ending the day less than 0.3s slower than the Ferrari.

Romain Grosjean was the first of the day's runners to complete a full race simulation, which included four pitstops. Thanks largely to that stint he also ended as Thursday's busiest driver on 119 laps.

Others ran long-race simulations of their own, although some were interrupted when Giedo van der Garde's Caterham stopped on the Turn 3 entry 15 minutes before the session's end (Van der Garde had been one of the afternoon's few improvers, and had just set his best time in the Caterham with a low 1:26s, before causing the stoppage).

Pastor Maldonado was the fifth fastest man on track after quite a busy morning (in which he completed a race simulation) before handing the FW34 over to his team-mate Valtteri Bottas at lunch. Bottas got within a couple of tenths of a second of Maldonado's best time before he as well completed a race simulation (which was eventually cut short late in the day by Garde's red flag).

McLaren's Jenson Button (whose new Mexican team mate Sergio Perez was fastest on Wednesday) ended the second last day seventh quickest.

Adrian Sutil, returning to the cockpit of a Formula One car for the first time in more than a year with the hope of securing the lone Force India race seat, did an respective 78 laps with the eighth best time. Ahead of Australian Mark Webber in the Red Bull and Jean-Eric Vergne (who both broke into triple figures on the lap count).

*** Sutil will hand over to Force India's 2012 reserve driver Jules Bianchi, his main rival for a 2013 drive with the team, for the final day tomorrow.


Times

	Driver	Car	Best time	Laps
1.	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari F138	1:21.875	97
2.	Nico Hulkenberg	Sauber C32	1:22.160	91
3.	Romain Grosjean	Lotus E21	1:22.188	119
4.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes W04	1:22.611	107
5.	Pastor Maldonado	Williams FW34	1:22.675	79
6.	Valtteri Bottas	Williams FW34	1:22.826	67
7.	Jenson Button	McLaren MP4-28	1:22.840	71
8.	Adrian Sutil	Force India VMJ06	1:22.877	78
9.	Mark Webber	Red Bull RB9	1:23.024	108
10.	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso STR8	1:23.366	106
11.	Max Chilton	Marussia MR02	1:25.690	57
11.	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham CT03	1:26.117	93