Barcelona Day 3: Mercedes ends up on top despite harder tires

Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton topped the times on the next to last day of F1 testing in Barcelona.

Hamilton finished with a soft tire lap faster than Williams and Ferrari achieved on super-softs.

Hamilton lap of 1m23.022s was more than two-tenths faster than the super-soft runs of Williams and Ferrari, but slower than Nico Rosberg's 1m22.792s from Friday.

Massa and Raikkonen spent the majority of the afternoon conducting longer runs on the medium and hard tires, the Ferrari driver completing a race simulation.

Hamilton explains that his car is so fast when he gets behind another driver he pushes the power button on the wheel and blows past.

Kevin Magnussen only managed 39 laps in the troublesome McLaren Honda.

Lewis Hamilton
It wasn't a particularly spectacular day. The track seems to have lost a bit of grip in the last few days so the feeling wasn't as good. But I'm still glad we got some running done and I feel good in the car. We were trying to understand a few things today with the set up and it gave us a clearer indication of that in the afternoon. The guys in the team have been exceptional during these tests and I just can't wait to get racing now – the fun stuff!

Romain Grosjean

Romain Grosjean:
That was a long day and the track conditions varied quite a lot. This morning went pretty well, we had a lot of work to do with some aero and set-up tasks as we’re trying to test as many things as possible before Melbourne. In the afternoon we ran a race simulation and other performance evaluations. There’s potential for improvement in some areas but we have plenty of data to get the car more to where we want it to be for Melbourne. I can’t wait to for the season to start.

Carlos Sainz
This was the sort of day we needed and it went really well. It means we can go to Melbourne with a boost to our confidence. This afternoon was particularly productive, after we had a couple of minor difficulties in the morning. The race simulation went well and overall we did a high mileage, which is obviously the most important thing. I'd like to thank the team for all their efforts during this pre-season period, as they helped me learn a lot every time I jumped in the car. Two weeks from tomorrow I will take part in my first Grand Prix: I am looking forward to it and I feel ready, especially after this test. Clearly, I’m very excited that it’s all about to start.

DAY THREE RESULTS