The penultimate day of pre-season testing at Bahrain got underway this morning with typically perfect weather conditions.
Williams's Valtteri Bottas and Caterham's Marcus Ericsson were first out, completing lap-times in the low 1 m 40 sec bracket. Esteban Gutierrez also ventured out in his Sauber C33 for an installation lap.
The times quickly came tumbling however, with Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton posting a 1:35.506 and then bettering it to a 1:34.263.
Despite the Brit's pace, his W05 developed a small hydraulic issue later on in the day. The Italian Ferrari team encountered telemetry issues today also, forcing Kimi Raikkonen to miss some of the session whilst the problems were resolved.
Reigning constructors World Champions Red Bull's woes continued today, after an impressive run yesterday with 59 laps completed in the hands of Sebastian Vettel. New signing Daniel Ricciardo did not fair as well however, after suffering a new, undisclosed mechanical issue which cut the Australian's running short after just 28 laps.
There were a grand total of three red flags today, two courtesy of the Lotus team, with Pastor Maldonado's E22 stopping on track twice. Marussia's Max Chilton suffered an engine issue, resulting in the team having to replace his Ferrari power unit. This meant that the Briton only completed four laps.
It was a good day for Williams with Felipe Massa at the wheel, who completed 60 laps and finished 3rd overall. A vast improvement on Wednesday's four.
McLaren also fared well with the newly-engaged Jenson Button finishing on +0.7 seconds back from Hamilton, after running over 100 laps which was the most of any team. They were closely followed by Caterham who completed 98.
The final day of testing concludes tomorrow at 2pm GMT. Follow F1Today.net for Live Updates throughout the day.
Tom Brooks
F1 Editor
Day 3 - Bahrain Report: Hamilton on top, followed by Button
- Published on 21 Feb 2014 16:01
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- By: Tom Brooks
F1 News
Jenson Button
Valtteri Bottas
Felipe Massa
Pastor Maldonado
Daniel Ricciardo
Lewis Hamilton
Sebastian Vettel
Marcus Ericsson
Esteban Gutierrez
Mercedes
Sauber
Williams
McLaren
Lotus F1
Ferrari
Marussia
.
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Azerbaijan Grand Prix
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Azerbaijan Grand Prix
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Friday
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Saturday
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Sunday
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Friday
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Saturday
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Test calendar
Circuit de Catalunya - Winter testing
-
Jan 26
I. Hadjar
- 1:18.159
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Jan 27
M. Verstappen
- 1:19.578
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-
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Jan 28
A. Antonelli
- 1:17.362
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Jan 29
G. Russell
- 1:16.445
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Jan 30
L. Hamilton
- 1:16.348
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Bahrain International Circuit - Winter testing
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Feb 11
L. Norris
- 1:34.669
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Feb 12
C. Leclerc
- 1:34.273
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Feb 13
A. Antonelli
- 1:33.669
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Bahrain International Circuit - Winter testing
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Feb 18
G. Russell
- 1:33.459
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Feb 19
A. Antonelli
- 1:32.803
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Feb 20
C. Leclerc
- 1:31.992
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Gilles Villeneuve
5 - Jun 7
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Spain
Circuit de Catalunya
Driver profile
- Team McLaren
- Points 37
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- Team name Mercedes
- Base Brackley, Germany
- Michael Schumacher 3
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