Jerez Testing – Day 3: Mercedes racks up laps, McLaren F1 and Red Bull face problems

The third day of pre-season testing in Jerez once again saw the Mercedes W06 Hybrid complete laps almost without a hitch. Almost, because Nico Rosberg experienced a scare around 1:00 PM, keeping him in the pits for a little over an hour, before returning to the track to complete 151 laps, nearly the distance of three Grand Prix, just like on Sunday.

However, the Mercedes is not the fastest of the day – even if the times obviously have to be taken with a grain of salt – as it is Felipe Nasr and his Sauber C34 who set the best time, at 1:21.545. The Brazilian caused the first red flag of the day after going off the track at turn 9. Another Ferrari engine is in second position, the SF15-T driven by Kimi Räikkönen, which was stopped at midday by a technical issue but was able to return to the track for a total of 92 laps covered.

Next came Felipe Massa in the Williams, Pastor Maldonado in his Lotus, who managed to cover a significant distance (96 laps) even though the Venezuelan was responsible for the last red flag of the day just seconds before the end, and Carlos Sainz driving his Toro Rosso, who completed 136 laps, the second highest total of the day.

At the bottom of the timesheet are Daniel Ricciardo and Fernando Alonso. For the Australian, the day was significantly disrupted by an engine change carried out by Red Bull following an issue discovered in the morning. At McLaren, this third day had started well, with 32 laps completed early in the morning, but around 11:30, the MP4-30 was brought back to the pits with an engine problem, prematurely ending this session.

Jerez Test Rankings 2015 – Day 3: