Vettel tops Thursday times at Jerez

Sebastian Vettel has topped the timesheets at Jerez. In this third day of testing, the German was lapping the Red Bull car in preparation for 2009. Nick Heidfeld was second fastest, followed by Renault's test and GP2 driver Lucas Di Grassi.

Vettel set the quickest time today, despite missing what's known as "happy hour" in the first part of the morning when the track is at its fastest. He was forced to sit this out as the RB4 required an unscheduled engine change. Once out on track, the team successfully worked through both an aero and a mechanical comparison test which produced positive results. Unfortunately, shortly after starting a long run test, the rain arrived and although Vettel did some running on rain tires, it effectively put an end to the day. The track surface is completely new and this was the first time it had been used in the wet and it was, therefore, extremely slippery. For the final day tomorrow, Sebastien Buemi takes over at the wheel of the Red Bull car, having tested for Scuderia Toro Rosso here yesterday.

Results
1. Sebastien Vettel Red Bull 1:18.001
2. Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber 1:18.167
3. Lucas Di Grassi Renault 1:18.999
4. Pedro De La Rosa McLaren 1:19.281
5. Alexander Wurz Honda 1:19.499
6. Takuma Sato Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:19.574
7. Kamui Kobayashi Toyota 1:19.863
8. Kazuki Nakajima Williams 1:21.892