Barcelona Day 3: Hulkenberg quickest as Ferrari hit trouble

Nico Hulkenberg posted the fastest time by nearly three seconds for Force India on the third day of pre-season testing in Barcelona as Formula 1's traditional powerhouses took a back seat on Wednesday.

The German posted the second fastest time of the week of 1: 23.110 on Super-soft Pirelli tyres, just three tenths of a second down on Sebastian Vettel's best effort in the Ferrari on the even faster Ultra-soft tyres a day earlier.

Romain Grosjean was second fastest for Formula 1 newcomers Haas, whilst Kimi Raikkonen recovered from a frustrating morning for Ferrari due to a fuel system problem to record the third best time of the day.

After two frustrating days with Jolyon Palmer in the cockpit, Renault finally had a good day albeit with Kevin Magnussen on duty and getting his first taste of Renault F1 power.

The Dane, making his return to the F1 grid this year, was fourth fastest using Pirelli soft tyres.

After two marathon days where their drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, amassed 328 laps between them, and with Hamilton due to spend all day in the car on Wednesday, with Rosberg back for Thursday.

But instead the team decided to split the duties with the German lapping in the morning and Briton in the afternoon.

And once again the world champions once again prioritised miles over speed on day three as Rosberg and Hamilton logged a combined 162 laps after a change of plan saw them split driving duties for the day.

Both again refused to show the true speed of the W07 with Rosberg fifth fastest and Hamilton down in eighth.

Hamilton didn't look too perturbed, though, as he passed through the paddock on a hoverboard whilst taking his dog Roscoe for a walk early in the session. Mercedes have now completed a remarkable 490 laps through the first three days of testing.

"We need to push the car to its limit in order to find little problems. At some point something will break and for now we need to keep on going to find out where the little weak points are," said Rosberg.

"Laptime-wise, it's not realistic where we are. We haven't showed our cards, we’re holding back, but the car is quick."

Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz posted the day’s biggest single-driver lap total, getting through 161 tours of the circuit.

Sainz was the first to bring out the red flags when he stopped just after the pit exit after his team had failed to correctly attach a wheel to his car.

Daniil Kvyat finished in ninth place, behind Hamilton, but for the second day in succession Red Bull Racing were hampered by reliability issues.

McLaren-Honda's positivity over the reliability of their MP4-31 dissipated slightly as Jenson Button managed just 51 laps before his day was ended early by a hydraulic problem.

The 2009 world champion was also well down on pace as he finished 11th out of 12 drivers that took to the track.

Indonesian rookie Rio Haryanto had an opening F1 morning to forget as he spun his Manor into the gravel and finished nearly three seconds behind Button.