Barcelona II, day 3: Perez tops morning session

In a complete change of pace from the previous two days seen at testing, it would be Sergio Perez and Sauber F1 who would again dominate the top place of the time sheets as the morning session of the penultimate test day in Barcelona came to a finish. Not only would Perez claim the top spot, but he would set a lap time of 1:22.094, the fastest lap time to be recorded at the Circuit de Catalunya this year.

The time would be set in the final hour of the mornings test session, on a set of the soft Pirelli compound tyres during a qualifying simulation run by the team. Daniel Ricciardo in the Toro Rosso and on the super soft tyres, would be end just 0.061 seconds behind the Sauber of Perez though, completing 50 laps in total – 1 more than Perez’s total tally so far.

Felipe Massa had a strong run in his Ferrari F2012 this morning. Occupying the top spot of the time sheets for much of the morning, he would eventually finish the morning with 48 laps completed, and a quickest time of 1:22.413, good enough for third place. After rumours of Massa being fired by the Scuderia Ferrari team circulated last night, it was almost as though the team had something to prove with Massa this morning, and they did exactly that.

After a series of pit stop practices in the early morning, Paul di Resta would slot into fourth position on time sheets after taking over from team-mate Nico Hulkenberg for today. Bruno Senna in the FW34 and a surprising appearance by Heikki Kovalainen in the Caterham F1 CT-01 would be close behind, and well within the 1 minute, 22 second time frame for the morning.

Mark Webber and the newly designed RB8, which includes a chassis redesign to accommodate the newly redesigned exhaust layout the team are now running, and minor changes to the front and rear wings of the car, would finish the morning just seventh. The team opted to run the car for 46 laps to collect data on the new handling of the redesigned car, which will only run for 2 days in race simulation before being flow to Australia for the first Grand Prix of the season.

Nico Rosberg, back in the Mercedes AMG F1 W03 would top the total lap’s board this morning with 63 laps completed. Heavier fuel loads and quickly degrading tyres restricted his run to eighth position overall, but still well within a second of the pace set. Nico Rosberg would also be the final runner to get a lap time within the 1 minute 22 second mark.

Surprisingly, Jenson Button would only complete a minimal 17 laps on the McLaren MP4-27 this morning, but with no reported problems from the team or car, the short runs went without explanation.

Tenth place would be occupied by returning Formula 1 World Champion Kimi Raikkonen and the Lotus F1 E20. Raikkonen told the team he was uncomfortable with the steering of the car, meaning the team would spend much of the morning session rectifying the problem. With the exception of a few short laps at the end of the morning session, Raikkonen would also complete just 17 laps over the morning, and record a quickest time of just 1:25.620 – a full three and a half seconds off the pace.

Day 3 AM Session times and total lap numbers can be seen below.

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