Massa fastest on third morning of testing

Felipe Massa topped the times on the third morning of Formula 1 testing at Jerez, as he set the fastest time of the week so far.

The Ferrari driver, who will hand over to Pedro de la Rosa for the final day of running, became the first driver to lap under 1m18s this week.

Massa posted a 1m17.879s during a short run on the soft tyre, and then went only marginally slower on a similar run shortly after.

That left the Brazilian more than one second clear of Nico Rosberg, who had a busy morning as Mercedes made up for the time it lost on Monday and Tuesday.

Late improvements from Force India simulator driver James Rossiter and Jenson Button moved them up to third and fourth just before the halfway mark of the day, while world champion Sebastian Vettel was fifth after his first morning in the Red Bull RB9.

Jean-Eric Vergne, Esteban Gutierrez and Valtteri Bottas all got their first track action of 2013, as did 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen.

The Finn, who moved up to fourth fastest just before 1pm local time, had a quiet morning as the team focused on getting him comfortable in the car.

Charles Pic also spent the first part of his day getting settled in with Caterham, and the Frenchman caused the only red flag of the morning when his car came to a stop shortly after leaving the pits.

Morning times:

Pos  Driver              Team            Time               Laps
  1.  Felipe Massa        Ferrari         1m17.879s           49
 2.  Nico Rosberg        Mercedes        1m19.004s  +1.125   69
 3.  James Rossiter      Force India     1m19.303s  +1.424   32
 4.  Kimi Raikkonen      Lotus           1m19.539s  +1.660   23
 5.  Jenson Button       McLaren         1m19.603s  +1.724   28
 6.  Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull        1m19.676s  +1.797   46
 7.  Jean-Eric Vergne    Toro Rosso      1m19.707s  +1.828   46
 8.  Esteban Gutierrez   Sauber          1m19.995s  +2.116   61
 9.  Valtteri  Bottas    Williams        1m21.578s  +3.699   58
10.  Max Chilton         Marussia        1m23.938s  +6.059   27
11.  Charles Pic         Caterham        1m25.365s  +7.486   28

All Timing Unofficial

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Source: http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/formula-one-news/f1-formula-one-news/massa-fastest-on-third-morning-of-testing

Olivier Grouillard Brian Gubby André Guelfi Miguel Ángel Guerra Roberto Guerrero