Felipe Massa Quickest on Penultimate Day of Barcelona Testing
Williams' Felipe Massa bettered his previous best time in testing in 1min 23:262, but was ominously still well off the time set by Mercedes' Nico Rosberg.
Brazilian Felipe Massa was fastest on the third morning of the final Formula One pre-season test in Barcelona on Saturday.
The Williams driver bettered his previous best time in testing in 1min 23:262 on the supersoft tyres, but was ominously still well off the time set by Nico Rosberg in the reigning world champion Mercedes on the slower soft tyres on Friday.
Kimi Raikkonen was just over a hundredth of a second behind Massa in the Ferrari as he also ran on the supersoft tyres with Sauber's Marcus Ericsson in third.
World champion Lewis Hamilton was only sixth fastest as his Mercedes spent a large chunk of the morning session preparing experimental changes to the car for the afternoon.
There was more positive news for McLaren as test driver Kevin Magnussen, deputising for the absent Fernando Alonso after his crash last weekend, logged another 38 laps and posted the best time set by the MP4-30 in Barcelona over seven days of testing.
Force India's reliability in just their second day in the new VJM08 continued to be impressive as Nico Hulkenberg completed the most mileage before lunch with 76 laps.
Results from the morning session on day three of the final pre-season test in Barcelona:
1. Felipe Massa (BRA/Williams) 1:23.262 (45 laps)
2. Kimi Raikkonen (FIN/Ferrari) 1:23.276 (51 laps)
3. Marcus Ericsson (SWE/Sauber) 1:24.477 (50 laps)
4. Nico Hulkenberg (GER/Force India) 1:24.939 (76 laps)
5. Kevin Magnussen (DEN/McLaren) 1:25.225 (38 laps)
6. Lewis Hamilton (GBR/Mercedes) 1:25.471 (36 laps)
7. Daniel Ricciardo (AUS/Red Bull) 1:25.742 (60 laps)
8. Carlos Sainz Junior (ESP/Toro Rosso) 1:26.330 (53 laps)
9. Sebastian Grosjean (FRA/Lotus) 1:27.950 (44 laps)