Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg was fastest on day three of Formula 1 pre-season testing at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya, as Romain Grosjean starred for Haas.
Hulkenberg, driving the new VJM09 for the first time on Wednesday, set the pace in the morning on the medium tyres, before lowering his benchmark in the afternoon, clocking a 1m23.110s on the super-soft rubber.
Romain Grosjean put the new Haas F1 Team a surprise second in the order with a late run on the soft tyres, albeit 2.7s adrift of pacesetter Hulkenberg.
The Frenchman, who lost mileage on Monday after a front-wing failure, added 82 laps to Haas’ tally for the week.
Kimi Raikkonen spent most of the morning confined to the pits, but made up for it in the afternoon, managing 77 laps on route to third for Ferrari.
Kevin Magnussen completed 110 laps on his first day at the wheel of the Renault RS16, despite a stoppage at the exit of the pitlane late in the afternoon.
After an aborted attempt to rejoin the session ended with the car stuck at the end of the pitlane again, he returned to the track in the closing minutes and ended the day fourth on the leaderboard.
In an effort to ease their drivers’ work load, Mercedes opted to split its test programme for the day, with Nico Rosberg completing 74 laps in the morning, before handing over to team-mate Lewis Hamilton in the afternoon.
Rosberg’s time of 1m26.084s on the medium tyres meant he ended the day fifth, while Hamilton racked up 88 laps on route to eighth, meaning the team once again exceeded the 150 lap mark.
Carlos Sainz completed the most laps of any driver on the day – 161 – in sixth in the new Ferrari-powered Toro Rosso, despite causing an early stoppage owing to a loose right-rear tyre in the morning.
Flipe Nasr lapped seventh fastest in the 2015 Sauber, with the new car set to debut at next week’s second test.
Daniil Kvyat ended his first day in the 2016 Red Bull in ninth, ahead of Williams driver Felipe Massa.
Jenson Button added 66 laps to McLaren’s tally in the morning, but completed just five more before a hydraulic issue curtailed the team’s running early on Wednesday.
Rio Haryanto propped up the timesheet for Manor, registering a spin at Turn 5 in the morning session.
Pre-season testing – Test 1 – Day 3 Final Times:
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
| 1 | N. Hulkenberg | Force India | 1:23.110 | 99 | |
| 2 | R. Grosjean | Haas | 1:25.874 | 2.764 | 82 |
| 3 | K. Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1:25.977 | 2.867 | 77 |
| 4 | K. Magnussen | Renault | 1:26.014 | 2.904 | 110 |
| 5 | N. Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:26.084 | 2.974 | 74 |
| 6 | C. Sainz | Toro Rosso | 1:26.239 | 3.129 | 161 |
| 7 | F. Nasr | Sauber | 1:26.392 | 3.282 | 115 |
| 8 | L. Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:26.421 | 3.311 | 87 |
| 9 | D. Kvyat | Red Bull | 1:26.497 | 3.387 | 74 |
| 10 | F. Massa | Williams | 1:26.712 | 3.602 | 109 |
| 11 | J. Button | McLaren | 1:26.919 | 3.809 | 71 |
| 12 | R. Haryanto | Manor | 1:29.808 | 6.698 | 77 |
