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F1: Alonso Gives Ferrari A Boost With Barcelona Pace
Fernando Alonso leads Day Three in Barcelona...
Adam Cooper  | http://www.speedtv.com  |  Posted February 21, 2013   Barcelona (ESP)
Ferrari continues its quest for additional speed in qualifying. (Photo: Getty Images)
Fernando Alonso gave Ferrari a boost by setting the best time on the third day of the Barcelona test – although his time was marginally slower than that set by pacesetter Sergio Perez on Wednesday.

The main news of the day was the return of Adrian Sutil to Force India for the first time since the 2011 Brazilian GP.

With rain expected for the fourth and final day on Friday, all the teams were eager to cram in as much dry running as possible. However, extremely cold conditions early in the morning made for a quiet start, although eventually normal service was resumed.

Alonso was pleased with the way his day unfolded.

“Today we concentrated on a comparison of the compounds, starting with the Soft and moving on to the Hard in the afternoon,” said Alonso. “The track was colder than yesterday, especially in the morning, which made it harder to adapt the car and find the right grip level. We tried various aerodynamic configurations and for the first time, we made some setup changes to get a good understanding of tire behavior and degradation.

“With every change we made, the car reacted as I expected and it was useful to try out the different settings, especially to understand which direction we need to go in next week, when there will be a greater emphasis on performance.

“Once again this year, the tires will be one of the crucial aspects to manage – they are softer and quicker, but also less consistent and they degrade rapidly with every lap. We will have a lot of work to do to understand how best to balance the car, but that applies to all the teams.”

After three straight days, Alonso now hands the Ferrari over to Felipe Massa for the final day.

Meanwhile, Nico Hulkenberg set the second-fastest time as Sauber tried the soft tire for the first time.

“It was a positive day,” said the German. “We got a lot of testing done with just minor problems. I ran the soft tires in the morning here in Barcelona for the first time to get a feeling for those, which was interesting. The car is performing pretty well, and I‘m as happy as I can be.”

Lotus again figured near the top of the order, with Romain Grosjean taking third spot after running a marathon 119 laps as the team caught up on mileage lost earlier in the week.

“I think I’m ready for a sleep after so many laps in the car,” joked Grosjean. “It’s good to see reliability today to add to the pace we’ve already seen in the car. We’re still at an early stage of development so it’s really promising to see where we are. It was difficult out on track as temperatures were so low, but we’ve gained a lot of useful data. The 2013 tires certainly feel different from last year’s, but already we’re starting to understand them. I hope it’s dry tomorrow so we can get some more laps under our belt.”

Fourth fastest today, Nico Rosberg also did a lot of laps for Mercedes, and pronounced himself happy with progress.

“We didn’t have a perfect morning and it was tough out there with the low temperatures,” said Rosberg. “They were causing a lot of tire graining, which made it difficult to do much useful testing. It was a few degrees warmer after the break and that gave a completely different picture. In general, I’m pleased with what we’ve achieved this week – I did a lot of mileage and the team has done a good job over the winter. I feel more comfortable in the car and the balance is quite good, but we still need to work in a number of areas. That’s why I’m looking forward to testing next week and to see what progress we can make.”

Pastor Maldonado and Valtteri Bottas had a half a day apiece in the Williams FW35, setting the fifth and sixth best times respectively.

Sutil ended his day in eighth spot, between Jenson Button and Mark Webber. The latter took the Red Bull over from Sebastian Vettel and enjoyed a trouble-free day.

“We had a pretty good run today, we’re learning plenty, so a positive outing for us,” said Webber. “Overall the car ran smoothly and once again we amassed a huge amount of data for the guys back at the factory to go through. We’d like to get a bit more mileage tomorrow in the dry, but that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen; it looks like it will be wet.

“As usual at tests, the question of the pecking order comes up all the time but, honestly, I have no idea. There are a few quick cars out there, but in winter testing it’s so hard to say if anyone’s better than anyone else, especially with the tires going off the way they are – you’re losing four or five seconds over the course of a stint, so figuring out who’s doing what is pretty difficult. All we can do is keep pushing, keep developing and keep our eyes fixed on the first race.”

Pos Driver Car Time Laps
1. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:21.875 97
2. Nico Hulkenberg Sauber 1:22.160 91
3. Romain Grosjean Lotus 1:22.188 119
4. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:22.611 108
5. Pastor Maldonado Williams 1:22.675 79
6. Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:22.826 68
7. Jenson Button McLaren 1:22.840 71
8. Adrian Sutil Sahara Force India 1:22.877 78
9. Mark Webber Red Bull 1:23.024 108
10. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1:23.366 106
11. Max Chilton Marussia 1:25.690 58
12. Giedo Van Der Garde Caterham 1:26.177 93

Adam Cooper notched up his 28th season as a racing journalist in 2012. He has written about F1 for SPEED.com since 2005. Follow him on Twitter.
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