Bahrain Tests 2 – Day 3: Massa and Rosberg Far Ahead, Red Bull, Lotus, and Sauber on the Canvas

The third day of the second Bahrain private testing was dominated by Felipe Massa driving his Williams, powered by Mercedes, with a time of 1:33.258 (on super soft tires), the absolute best time achieved since the arrival of the F1 cars in Bahrain last Wednesday. The Williams driver completed a total of 99 laps and confirmed the apparent excellent form of the FW36.

Behind him, two-tenths away, was Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes W05 (1:33.484, super soft). After an engine change that required missing part of the morning, the grey car performed well throughout the session, covering 103 laps, and positioning itself alone in the wake of the Williams FW36.

Far behind, more than two seconds back, Kimi Räikkönen probably didn’t exploit the full potential of his Ferrari F14-T, even though his time was set on super soft tires as well. The Finn, after a technical problem in the morning, was ultimately able to complete 87 laps of the Sakhir circuit. The Ferrari driver is ahead of the Dane, Kevin Magnussen, who completed 88 laps today.

81 laps for Daniil Kvyat in his Renault-powered Toro Rosso. A rather reassuring day for the Faenza team, which continues its steady progress, just like Jules Bianchi, who completed 78 laps at the wheel of the Marussia, showing clear improvement since last week, even securing the 7th place with a time of 1:37.087.

Another Renault engine in form, the one in the Caterham: 117 laps today for Marcus Ericsson. A total that would make Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel envious as they weren’t able to complete a single lap today, similar to the Sauber-Ferrari whose hybrid engine seemingly went up in smoke at the very start of the session.

For Lotus, the day wasn’t really good: 33 laps covered by Romain Grosjean before a battery problem prematurely ended the session for the British team. A bad habit since the start of this session.