Jerez: Day Three

Day Three saw even more driver switches with some stepping into the car for the first time like, Kimi Raikkonen, Sebastian Vettel, Charles Pic, Jean-Eric Vergne and Valtteri Bottas. This was the biggest day for me as it saw The Iceman step into the E21 for the first time and I wasn't disappointed.

Final Standings

1. Felipe Massa (Ferrari) 1m17.879s
2. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) 1m18.766s
3. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) 1m19.052s
4. Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus) 1m19.200s
5. Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso) 1m19.247s
6. James Rossiter (Force India) 1m19.303s
7. Jenson Button (McLaren) 1m19.603s
8. Esteban Gutierrez (Sauber) 1m19.934s
9. Max Chilton (Marussia) 1m21.269s
10. Valtteri Bottas (Williams) 1m21.575s
11. Charles Pic (Caterham) 1m22.352s
12. Paul di Resta (Force India) 1m23.729s

After a pretty quiet and bleak start to testing, Ferrari's Felipe Massa topped the time sheets, a stark contrast to this time last year for the team and the Tifosi. 

This was a day of many positives for a lot of teams. Reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel managed to repeat the similar set times by his team mate in the days before him, showing just how consistent the RB9 is at this stage. Though be under no illusion I'm sure it'll be absolutely magnificent as Newey always makes it. So long as there's no repeat of 2011 we'll be fine. Max Chilton managed to beat Charles Pic in the battle of the back markers. The greatest achievement was Nico Rosberg finally getting a good lap out of the Mercedes to go second overall.

More disappointment for Jenson Button and McLaren as his time wasn't overly quick and he stopped towards the end of the session. Valtteri Bottas (who was the subject of my very first blog) was a bit of a disappointment for me, but a reminder here that Williams are running their 2012 car with 2013 livery and some 2013 parts. We will not see the full potential until Barcelona.