Sergio Perez ended the penultimate day of pre-season testing quickest after an early lap of 1:22.094 put him top.
Jenson Button, who had remained fairly quiet in the first few hours of the day, jumped to second with a lap just nine thousandths slower than the Sauber driver.
Daniel Ricciardo, Felipe Massa and Paul di Resta completed the top five, whilst the top nine were all within a second of the Perez’s best lap.
Kimi Raikkonen had a fairly quiet session, completing just 43 laps after steering issues in the morning delayed his programme.
The day saw just a single red flag for Bruno Senna’s stricken Williams which ended up in the gravel just before turn 10. The likely cause of his off… hail and rain. The weather turned for the worst with just two hours remaining as heavy rain hit the circuit for a brief ten minutes, before hail took over as the temperature dropped to 14ºC, from an afternoon high of 16ºC.
Testing resumes on Sunday for the final days running before the season opening race in Melbourne, Australia on March 18th.
Test times from Barcelona (Day 3):
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01. | S. Perez | Sauber | 1:22.094 | — | 114 |
| 02. | J. Button | McLaren | 1:22.103 | +0.009 | 44 |
| 03. | D. Ricciardo | Toro Rosso | 1:22.155 | +0.061 | 131 |
| 04. | F. Massa | Ferrari | 1:22.413 | +0.319 | 122 |
| 05. | P. Di Resta | Force India | 1:22.446 | +0.352 | 108 |
| 06. | B. Senna | Williams | 1:22.480 | +0.386 | 111 |
| 07. | H. Kovalainen | Caterham | 1:22.630 | +0.536 | 64 |
| 08. | M. Webber | Red Bull | 1:22.662 | +0.568 | 70 |
| 09. | N. Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:22.932 | +0.838 | 129 |
| 10. | K. Raikkonen | Lotus | 1:25.379 | +3.285 | 43 |
