Barcelona I, day 3: Maldonado tops morning session

Day 3 / AM Session – February 23rd 2012; Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona

In a surprise turn of events, and on the coldest morning in Barcelona so far, it would be Pastor Maldonado in the Williams FW34 who would top the time sheets in the morning session of Day 3 testing at Catalunya.

Not only was Maldonado in P1 on the time sheets, but his fastest lap this morning, 1:22.391, was also the fastest lap to be posted in Barcelona this test. Having taken over in the Williams FW34 today, Maldonado would find himself nearly a full second ahead of second place man Michael Schumacher in the Mercedes AMG W03. The time was set on the super soft tyre compound on a day which saw many different compounds used by the teams, who struggled to setup cars appropriately in the colder weather conditions.

Michael Schumacher and Mercedes were looking to make up for lost time yesterday. There were no signs of the apparent oil leak which stopped the car yesterday, and Schumacher was able to complete 54 laps this morning, the second highest of all 10 runners.

Kobayashi, who has now taken over from Sergio Perez in the Sauber C31 for the remaining two days testing, had a solid morning in the car, posting a third fastest lap of everyone, and completing the highest number of laps, 59 in total. Running the super soft compound, the only real action of note from the Sauber is that it would bring a Red Flag to the morning session, and premature lunch break, as the car ran out of fuel just minutes before the official end of the session.

Jenson Button, now in the McLaren MP4-27, would run the soft tyre compound this morning, and over 39 laps would only get to within 1.527 seconds of the pace runner Maldonado.

Jean Eric Vergne would also have a somewhat quiet morning, achieving 42 laps and fifth on the time sheets. Again, there were no signs of any reliability issues on the Toro Rosso this morning, much to the relief of the team.

Felipe Massa was back in the Ferrari F2012, and coping with ‘mechanical issues’ on the car, still managed to run the Ferrari for 48 laps. Massa was somewhat off the pace of the front runners though; over two seconds separated his time with first position. The continued problems with the F2012 are certainly not ideal for the team, who do not appear to be making much progress on the track so far, with less than half the winter testing season left before things kick off in Australia.

Red Bull Racing had a very quiet morning, and although no reported issues with the team or car, Mark Webber, in the seat of the RB8 now, would only complete 26 laps and post a time of 1:24.835, good enough for seventh on the time sheets, and a huge 2.444 seconds off the pace.

Timo Glock made his first appearance of the Formula 1 2012 season, back in the seat of the Marussia Racing’s 2011 Challenger the MVR-02. Looking to get some laps under his belt for the first time since the Brazil Grand Prix 2011, the team opted to run tyre evaluation, testing all 4 compounds available to them over the course of the morning. Glock would also cause a minor red flag on the session, when he slipped off track. He was able to recover though, and no damage was done to the session or the car.

Vitaly Petrov had yet another problem filled session, this time with a suspension issue keeping the Caterham F1 CT-01 in the garage much of the morning. 23 laps in total, and ninth place on the time sheets is all the team could achieve this morning.

Paul di Resta, back in the seat of the VJM05 would round off the runners this morning, almost five seconds off the pace. Di Resta’s morning was brought to an early end when the car lost part of its engine cover on track, causing a red flag. The team would take an early lunch to work on the car and is expected to be back on track this afternoon to add to the 20 laps Force India were restricted to this morning.

Day 3 AM Session times and total lap numbers can be seen below: