Formula One: Rookie Nasr tops Jerez day 3 as Rosberg racks up laps

Rookie Sauber driver Felipe Nasr has topped the 3rd day of the first pre-season test for the 2015 Formula One world championship. The track had seen a large amount of overnight rain, meaning that the drivers started the day on the wet tyres. The track slowly dried out over the course of the day to enable Nasr to set a 1’21.545, 6 tenths slower than the test best set by Vettel yesterday, despite having spun into the gravel and causing the first red flag earlier on in the day. A number of drivers managed to complete more than a century of laps, Nasr being one of them as he ended the day with 108 laps under his belt.

Kimi Raikkonen finished the day with 92 laps completed and the 2nd fastest time on his first day behind the wheel of the Ferrari SF15-T. The Finn traded fastest times with both Nasr and Rosberg for most of the day. He finished 2 tenths of a second ahead of Nico Rosberg, who managed to complete over 150 laps for the second time in this test despite having having stopped on track due to an engine shut-down just before lunchtime. Rosberg, who has completed 308 over his two days of running, says that the pace of the Ferrari team during the test has been ‘eye-opening’, with Raikkonen stating that the car was ‘a completely different story’ and that he had had ‘a positive start’.

Felipe Massa was in the cockpit of the Williams for the first time after watching Bottas at the wheel for the last two days. He finished the day 4th fastest with 71 laps completed. He was just ahead of Pastor Maldonado in 6th. Impressively, the Lotus F1 Team managed to get 96 laps completed on only their 2nd day of testing after missing a whole day on Monday. The day didn’t end how the team had hoped however after the Lotus E23 came to a halt, which bought the red flag out with just 25 seconds left of the test.

Carlos Sainz was the last driver to have managed to get over 100 laps completed. The Spanish rookie driver was 7th fastest for Toro Rosso after completing 136 laps. The Toro Rosso team have had an impressive first test so far and are now one of the teams with the highest mileage completed so far with one day remaining at Jerez.

Red Bull had another troubling day with Daniel Ricciardo at the wheel of the black and white RB11. The Australian managed to keep his front wing for the whole day, as well as managing to set a lap-time that was just 2 seconds slower than Nasr, but engine trouble had left Ricciardo stranded in the pits for most of the day.

McLaren’s day was a mixed affair as the team managed to set a lap-time for the first time at this test. With home-hero Alonso at the wheel, the MP4-30 managed to complete 32 laps with a best time of 1’35.553 in the wet conditions. The British team had hoped to complete more laps, but were forced to abandon the afternoon session after Alonso had spotted a problem during an out-lap.

“We’ve had a loss of cooling water pressure & have removed the power unit for inspection. That’s a long process, so it ends today’s running,” McLaren tweeted, “We can replace those components ahead of running tomorrow. The issue was promptly spotted by Fernando on an outlap – so quick to trace.”

The Jerez pre-season test concludes tomorrow with the 4th and final day before the teams head to the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona for the second test on February 19th until the 22nd.

Jerez pre-season test day 3 time-sheets: