F1 Testing Bahrain day 3

Infiniti Red Bull Racing’s third day of testing at the Bahrain International Circuitgot off to a positive start this morning as Daniel Ricciardo took over at the wheel of the RB10. However, midway through today’s running the team discovered a mechanical problem and in anticipation of tomorrow’s final day, the decision was taken to suspend running this afternoon.

“It was going OK,” said Daniel of his morning outing. “I did some good laps and those came off the back of the more than 50 laps Seb did yesterday, so we’re getting there. Obviously, I would have liked to do more this afternoon but we still have tomorrow ahead of us and it’s important to be ready for that. The car is definitely making progress though. It’s coming together bit by bit. We’d love a big chunk all at once but obviously that’s not the way these things work, so we have to be a bit patient for now. However, it is coming and we’re heading in the right direction. Tomorrow it would be nice to get more laps in and then roll on next week.”

Race Engineering Co-ordinator Andy Damerum said: “After yesterday’s good work we had another positive period overnight with the car build, which we’re getting quite good at, and it looked good this morning. We were focused on short runs for Daniel, as the car feels very different to the one we had in Jerez and we wanted to build things up gradually for him. We made more changes over lunch and in doing so we came across a mechanical issue that we hadn’t encountered before and because of its nature it means we have to take the car apart. As everyone in the pit lane is finding out this is a long process, so we decided to suspend running in the afternoon so that we can be ready for the final day. These issues are of course frustrating but this was unrelated to the others so it’s just a case of tackling each issue as it appears. A tough night in prospect but we hope to get a good day in tomorrow.”

Pos Driver                Team                     Time       Gap     Laps
 1. Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes              1m34.263s           67
 2. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes         1m34.976s  +0.713s  103
 3. Felipe Massa          Williams-Mercedes        1m37.066s  +2.803s  60
 4. Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber-Ferrari           1m37.180s  +2.917s  96
 5. Sergio Perez          Force India-Mercedes     1m37.367s  +3.104s  57
 6. Kimi Raikkonen        Ferrari                  1m37.476s  +3.213s  44
 7. Daniil Kvyat          Toro Rosso-Renault       1m38.974s  +4.711s  57
 8. Pastor Maldonado      Lotus-Renault            1m39.642s  +5.379s  26
 9. Daniel Ricciardo      Red Bull-Renault         1m40.781s  +6.518s  28
10. Marcus Ericsson       Caterham-Renault         1m42.130s  +7.867s  98
11. Max Chilton           Marussia-Ferrari         1m46.672s  +12.409s  4
12. Valtteri Bottas       Williams-Mercedes        no time             55