Max Verstappen concludes the morning in the lead

The third day of testing in Barcelona began with a premature interruption, following the German's exit from the track Sebastian Vettel, from the first seconds of the session, the driver Ferrari having been surprised with tires not yet up to temperature. An off-track excursion without much consequence since the quadruple world champion returned to the track a few minutes later, and concluded the morning with the third best time.

It's the Dutch Max Verstappen who dominated the session at the wheel of his Toro Rosso, approaching the reference time established yesterday by Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull), in 1'24″739, 165 thousandths behind the Australian and was also the most diligent on the track with 60 laps on the clock. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) finished second, more than 1″4 behind the leading Toro Rosso.

Behind the major trio, we find the Red Bull of Daniil Kvyat, 4th more than 1″8 ahead of the Williams FW37 of Felipe Massa, who will hand over his steering wheel to the Finn Valtteri Bottas in the afternoon, and the Force India of Pascal Wehrlein. Pastor Maldonado, the first driver to face the rain that occurred during the last hour when putting on intermediate tires, took seventh place ahead of the McLaren from Jenson Button, who had problems again this Saturday, with a loss of power on the Honda Power Unit and an on-track stop causing a red flag. The Briton was however able to return to the track afterwards, but only completed 12 laps.

Marcus Ericsson (Sauber) set a time at the very end of the session on a track made damp after the arrival of rain in the last hour, the Swiss team having spent most of the morning to resolve a gearbox problem.

Mid-day ranking Saturday:

1. Max Verstappen (Toro Rosso): 1’24″739? 60 rounds
2. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes): 1’26″142 – 41
3. Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari): 1’26″407 – 54
4. Daniil Kvyat (Red Bull): 1’26″589 – 34
5. Felipe Massa (Williams): 1’26″912 – 55
6. Pascal Wehrlein (Force India): 1’27″699 – 36
7. Pastor Maldonado (Lotus): 1’27″966 – 42
8. Jenson Button (McLaren): 1’29″151 – 12
9. Marcus Ericsson (Sauber): 1’42″179 – 6