Felipe Massa pushed his Williams to the top of the timing screens on the third day of pre-season testing in Bahrain, just pipping Nico Rosberg’s best time.
The Brazilian held the top spot for much of the morning, but was surpassed by Rosberg’s Mercedes toward the end of the day, but a final run for Massa put him back on top with a 1:33.258 – the fastest time seen so far and under a second off Rosberg’s 2013 pole position lap time of 1:32.330.
Rosberg managed 100 laps which was bettered only by Nico Hulkenberg in the Force India and Marcus Ericsson in the Caterham.
Kimi Raikkonen’s 1:35.487 was over two seconds slower, but the Finn looked to be concentrating on longer runs in the Ferrari F14-T.
It was a disaster for Red Bull and Sauber though as they failed to set a single timed lap.
Sebastian Vettel managed half a lap in the RB10 before it stopped on circuit and then attempted another, but failed to make it out of the pits.
Bahrain Testing Times (Saturday):
| # | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | F. Massa | Williams | 1:33.258 | 94 | |
| 02 | N. Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:33.484 | +0.226 | 100 |
| 03 | K. Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1:35.487 | +2.229 | 79 |
| 04 | K. Magnussen | McLaren | 1:35.894 | +2.636 | 80 |
| 05 | D. Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 1:36.113 | +2.855 | 68 |
| 06 | N. Hulkenberg | Force India | 1:36.205 | +2.947 | 108 |
| 07 | J. Bianchi | Marussia | 1:37.087 | +3.829 | 71 |
| 08 | M. Ericsson | Caterham | 1:38.083 | +4.825 | 106 |
| 09 | R. Grosjean | Lotus | 1:42.166 | +8.908 | 33 |
| 10 | S. Vettel | Red Bull | No Time | 1 | |
| 11 | A. Sutil | Sauber | No Time | 1 | |
| 12 | K. Kobayashi | Caterham | No Time | 0 |
