F1: Progress for Ferrari and Mercedes in Jerez

[Nik Hughes]

The third day of pre-season testing in Jerez saw the return to the track of World Champion Sebastian Vettel, settling into the RB9 for the first time on Thursday, while Felipe Massa took the quickest time of the day, and of the test so far.

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Massa's time of 1:17.879 will give Ferrari fans reason for cheer, as the strong showing from the Italian marque put to rest fears that the F138 was struggling for performance over the first two days. It brings a happy end to Massa's week, the Brazilian the only man to partake in a full three days of testing, before handing over to test driver Pedro de la Rosa on Friday.

Another team with smiles on their faces will be Mercedes. After Nico Rosberg's electrical problems on Tuesday, and Lewis Hamilton's session-ending crash yesterday, Rosberg recorded an impressive, bottom-numbing, and more importantly, relatively trouble-free 148 laps on Thursday The German wound up second ahead of Vettel, and Kimi Raikkonen, who got his first chance to try out the latest offering from Lotus.

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Jenson Button returned in the McLaren, getting through a handy 83 laps, but after a fuel pump problem on Tuesday, the Brit was left stranded on the track in the closing minutes of the session with an as-yet unknown problem.

Esteban Gutierrez made his first appearance as an official driver for Sauber, completing several trouble-free long runs. The Mexican ended the day just inside the 1m20's, with 110 laps under his belt.

Another man making the step up from test driver to full-time driver is Vallteri Bottas, and the Finn took over from Pastor Maldonado, again running a heavily-modified 2012 chassis, his times just shy of his Venezuelen team-mate's times from the previous two days.

DAY THREE FASTEST LAP TIMES
1 Felipe Massa (Ferrari) 1m17.879s

2 Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) 1m18.766s

3 Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) 1m19.052s

4 Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus) 1m19.200s

5 Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso) 1m19.247s

6 James Rossiter (Force India) 1m19.303s

7 Jenson Button (McLaren) 1m19.603s

8 Esteban Gutierrez (Sauber) 1m19.934s

9 Max Chilton (Marussia) 1m21.269s

10 Valtteri Bottas (Williams) 1m21.575s

11 Charles Pic (Caterham) 1m22.352s

12 Paul di Resta (Force India) 1m23.729s

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[Bram Hengeveld]

Glad that Felipe is able to continue with the pace he had in the second half of last season.

We have all been making (funny/sarcastic) remarks about his performance in the last three years but you have to hand it the man for having great will power to fight back.

 

[Andrew Holmes]

the differnce between Pic (new Caterham) and Bottas (old Williams is just 0.8 seconds and the FW34 was a strong car, this boads well for the season