Alonso tops the speedcharts on third day of testing in Barcelona

Fernando Alonso knew the new F138 had the speed and on the third day of testing for the Spaniard, he topped the unofficial time sheets on Circuit de Catalunya in his homeland. More importantly, the issues of the past two days allowed him to finally get laps under his belt. The 2012 vice champion clocked a time of 1:21.875 with a total of 97 laps around the circuit in Barcelona.

It was a cloudy day for the FIA Formula One Championship’s third test day in Spain but for Ferrari and Alonso it was a positive outcome after two earlier days with the dreaded issues that caused them time in the garage. Of course they were not the only team shaking down the new cars that had problems. In fact the testing will continue tomorrow and again next week as they all prepare for the first grand prix in Australia.

Alonso commented on his day which focused on the new Pirelli tyres and comparing the different compounds: "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 set-up changes to get a good understanding of tyre behaviour and degradation."

Felipe Massa will be in the F138 cockpit for tomorrow's final day of the second round of preseason testing. Added Alonso, "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."

Like most of the teams, Nico Hülkenberg and the Sauber F1 Ferrari team focused on the tyres and setup changes in the morning but switched over later in the day to focus on the full-fuel long runs. His best unofficial time was 1:22.160, and he put an additional 91 laps on the C32. Tomorrow the team's rookie Esteban Gutiérrez will be back in the car for the second time this week.

"It was a positive day. We got a lot of testing done with just minor problems. I ran the soft tyres 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," said Hülkenberg.

The one positive for the Lotus Renault team is they have the speed, and both drivers have been happy with the new E21, and yet they also have had the usual new car syndromes of not being perfect out of the box. Romain Grosjean was back in the cockpit and ended with the third fastest time of 1:22.188, and he also ended the day with the most laps -- 119 in total. The team had no issues that sidelined the Frenchman -- a perfect day in fact.

Grosjean said, “I think I’m ready for a sleep after so many laps in the car! 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 tyres 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.”

Unofficial times

Pos.	Driver	Car	Time	Laps
1	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:21.875	97
2	Nico Hülkenberg	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	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