Sauber's Felipe Nasr surprises on Day 3 of the Jerez test

Sauber's Felipe Nasr surprises the grid and tops the timesheets on Day 3 of the Jerez test.

Sauber's new driver and Formula One rookie Felipe Nasr topped the third day of Formula 1 testing at Jerez for Sauber, as the team’s soft tyre strategy finally got it ahead of Ferrari.

The Swiss team opted for a quick run on the yellow-sidewalled Pirelli tyres for the third successive day, but while it narrowly missed out on top spot to Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari on days one and two, Nasr was able to beat Vettel’s team-mate Kimi Raikkonen who finished the session in second place ahead of the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg.

Nasr’s laptime of a 1.21.545 came just a couple of minutes after Raikkonen had gone quickest on a set of medium-compound tyres during a mid-afternoon spell where the Sauber had a couple of turns at the top and Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes briefly got in on the action on the circuit as well.

Once again Mercedes dominated in terms of mileage with Rosberg adding 151 laps to the 157 laps he managed on day one and the 91laps that his team-mate Lewis Hamilton completed before a water leak curtailed his running on Monday. But Rosberg’s day was not trouble free though as an on-track engine shutdown forced him to a halt just before 1pm that brought out the red flags.

Rosberg was the second stoppage of the day. Nasr had caused the first stoppage of the day when he spun into the Turn 9 gravel when the circuit was damp in the morning. But there was a third red flag with just over one minute left in the day’s running, caused by Pastor Maldonado stopping on the backstraight at the Jerez circuit.

McLaren-Honda enjoyed its best day yet with as Fernando Alonso managed 32 laps in the morning, but a problem with the engine which detected by Alonso on an out-lap in the MP4-30 brought their running to a premature end. This left the MP4-30 comfortably bottom of the timesheets in eighth place, as Alonso missed out on the fully dry conditions of the afternoon.

Meanwhile, Lotus made a late start to the day due to a telemetry problem but finished the day in fifth place ahead of Carlos Sainz Jr who racked up136 laps in the session today. Today saw the Red Bull team suffering from engine gremlins that limited Daniel Ricciardo to little more than some short runs late in the day in the RB11 but finished the session in seventh place.

Day Three Timesheet:-

1. Felipe Nasr, Sauber, 1:21.545, 108 laps
2. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1:21.750, 92 laps
3. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1:21.982 151 laps
4. Felipe Massa, Williams, 1:22.276, 71 laps
5. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus, 1:22.713, 96 laps
6. Carlos Sainz, Toro Rosso, 1:23.187, 136 laps
7. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, 1:23.901, 48 laps
8. Fernando Alonso, McLaren, 1:35.553, 32 laps.

Sarah Jones