Barcelona F1 test: Pastor Maldonado fastest on day three for Lotus

A mid-afternoon run on super-softs took Maldonado to a time of 1m24.348s, beating Toro Rosso's Max Verstappen - who had also used super-softs to set his best time in the morning - by three tenths of a second.

"Even with the track limitation today with the weather and the rain coming and going, it was a positive day," said Maldonado.

"We did more than 100 laps, we tried to run a race simulation but it started to rain, so we stopped.

"The most impressive thing is the reliability. The team has done a really excellent job with the installation and the new parts and it all seems to be working quite well, which is quite encouraging.

"The car is quick, I don't know how quick against the others, but it's quicker than last year's one - that's easy to see."

The other big movement on the timing screens in the afternoon came courtesy of Marcus Ericsson.

The Sauber driver progressed to fourth on soft tyres after missing the majority of the morning to gearbox problems.

That put Ericsson just behind world champion Lewis Hamilton, as the Mercedes man stuck to medium tyres for his best runs.

McLaren had another frustrating day. The new seal intended to resolve the Honda MGU-K problem that had compromised the first part of the week proved no better, and after a long pause in the garage, Jenson Button had to run with reduced power for the rest of the day.

He was also involved in a late red flag, when both his McLaren and Verstappen's Toro Rosso parked in the pit exit in quick succession.

Verstappen still led the lap tally for Saturday as he managed 129 circuits.

Sebastian Vettel had a smooth end to a day that began with a spin into the gravel on cold tyres on his out-lap.

He eventually clocked 105 laps for Ferrari and went fifth fastest.

Red Bull's pitboard indicated that a race simulation was in prospect in the afternoon, but Daniil Kvyat returned to the garage after two stints had been completed. He was sixth overall.

Seventh-placed Felipe Massa handed the Williams over to team-mate Valtteri Bottas for the afternoon.

The Finn's programme was dominated by pitstop practice, and it was only in the final few minutes that he completed any full flying laps.

Bottas slotted in between Pascal Wehrlein - as the Mercedes test driver completed his on-loan stint at Force India - and Button to end the day ninth-fastest.

DAY THREE RESULTS