Jerez: Nasr places Sauber in the lead in testing

After two days of testing in Jerez where the Ferrari SF15-T finished first with Sebastian Vettel, it was the turn of the Sauber C34 driven by Felipe Nasr to end the session with first place. The Brazilian completed a lap in 1'21"545 on the soft tires, finishing half a second off the week's benchmark. If times have no real value, the regularity of the car Swiss is to be underlined.

But in this game, it's still Mercedes F1 which is the most impressive. Despite a problem noted with the Power Unit mid-session, Nico Rosberg was able to get back behind the wheel of the W06 Hybrid to complete 151 laps, in addition to the 157 completed on the first day. The German ranks between the Ferrari of Kimi Räikkönen and the Williams by Felipe Massa who stood out more in the second part of the day.

Lotus F1 Team was able to collect a lot of data since Pastor Maldonado completed around a hundred laps at the wheel of the E23. The Venezuelan will give way to his teammate Romain Grosjean for the final day, the Frenchman being the only starter not yet to have taken to the track (Force India being absent at Jerez).

McLaren had to call it a day after Fernando Alonso covered around thirty laps on board. The MP4-30 made its first real stints in this session before suffering a problem with the cooling system. Red Bull Racing took advantage of the end of the day to send his RB11 onto the track, but Daniel Ricciardo still did not have time to pass the 50 lap mark.

With only three interruptions, the teams were able to string together rounds with a total of 734 loops completed on the third day. At the end of three days of testing, Pirelli recorded 1633.

Here is the list of drivers expected for the final day: Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), Daniil Kvyat (Red Bull), Felipe Massa (Williams), Kimi Räikkönen (Ferrari), Jenson Button (McLaren), Max Verstappen (Toro Rosso), Romain Grosjean (Lotus) and Marcus Ericsson (Sauber).

Discover the photos of the winter tests in Jerez by clicking on this link.

Test times in Jerez. Day 3

1. Felipe Nasr? Sauber – 1’21”545? 108 rounds
2. Kimi Raikkonen? Ferrari +0”205? 92 rounds
3. Nico Rosberg? Mercedes + 0 »437? 151 rounds
4. Felipe Massa? Williams + 0 »731? 71 rounds
5. Pastor Maldonado? Lotus + 1 »168? 96 rounds
6. Carlos Sainz Jr? Toro Rosso + 1”642? 137 rounds
7. Daniel Ricciardo? Red Bull + 2 »356? 48 rounds
8. Fernando Alonso? McLaren +14”008? 32 rounds