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Penultimate day of Barcelona test sees Sergio Pérez fastest - Sauber set an early fastest time for testing in Barcelona

Published by Christine

Pérez ahead of the pack
Pérez ahead of the packCredit: Sauber Motorsport AG

Sergio Pérez set the fastest time in Barcelona today, the penultimate day before testing wraps up for the pre-season. The Sauber driver led the way from the morning session, with his afternoon focused on getting data from various fuel loads. Jenson Button finished the day second, with he and Kimi Räikkönen completing only 44 and 43 laps respectively. The difference between the two, though, was almost three seconds.

Kimi finished the day last, after spending some of the time locked up in the garage while some steering issues were fixed. The afternoon's running saw rain interrupt play, and did not allow for any faster times to be posted. Meanwhile, the focus of the day fell on both Red Bull - who brought some updated exhausts and other parts to the car - and on Ferrari - who refused to let their drivers talk to anyone in the media. As they put it:

The decision has been taken to keep the whole team fully focused on the job and there is not any polemic intent behind it.

InsideFerrari InsideFerrari

Nico rounds off his pre-season testing with an impressive 129 laps (600 km) today, despite a late rain shower interrupting running. That's it till Australia for Nico! Michael will be back at the wheel of the F1 W03 for the final day of pre-season testing tomorrow.

MercedesAMGF1 MercedesAMGF1

Tomorrow last day of testing before Melbourne for @Lotus_F1Team ! Sure the guys will find some good set-up to bring to Australia ;-)

RGrosjean RGrosjean

2012 Pre-Season Testing - Day 3, Barcelona
PositionDriverTeamTimeLaps
1Sergio PérezSauber1:22.094114
2Jenson ButtonMcLaren1:22.10344
3Daniel RicciardoToro Rosso1:22.155131
4Felipe MassaFerrari1:22.413122
5Paul di RestaForce India1:22.446108
6Bruno SennaWilliams1:22.480111
7Heikki KovalainenLotus1:22.63064
8Mark WebberRed Bull1:22.66270
9Nico RosbergMercedes1:22.932129
10Kimi RäikkönenLotus1:25.37943

All content in the series F1 testing 2012