Jerez first 2014 test Test day three
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And now a 1m26.568 for McLaren's new man, while Massa takes the Williams back out.
A little squirm for Magnussen at the last corner, but the result is 1m26.348s, which moves him to fourth.
Hamilton had been lapping in the 1m27s, but records a slow 1m46s last time around.
And back into the 1m27s for Hamilton, running on the hard Jerez tyre. He's running a very similar pace to Magnussen's McLaren, which is on the standard hard.
Massa's run wasn't very long, but Hamilton has now done eight laps in this stint.
We spoke too soon! Hamilton pits, leaving only Magnussen on his own.
JONATHAN NOBLE has just returned from the paddock and has reported that Adrian Newey and Christian Horner have already left the track. Not a good day for Red Bull...
Magnussen pits. He has already completed 19 laps today in the MP4-29. That's more than Red Bull has managed in three days!
Twitter
Marussia seems pretty happy with how the MR03 ran on its first outing.
@Marussia_F1Team: "Straight out of the garage & a good clean installation lap. We couldn't have asked for any more than that!"
@Marussia_F1Team: "Straight out of the garage & a good clean installation lap. We couldn't have asked for any more than that!"
Alonso is back out on track with the Ferrari. He needs to find half a second to knock Hamilton off top spot.
Thanks for all your questions for Nico Rosberg. The man himself will be arriving shortly to provide his answers to AUTOSPORT Live.
Nico Rosberg F1 Mercedes 2014
Alonso comes in briefly, then blasts back out.
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Hamilton's Mercedes whistles down the pitlane. Lewis says he has been preparing for 2014 in a slightly unusual way:
"It has probably been the shortest winter I have ever had out of the car. I spent Christmas and New Year training in the mountains and I even put a turbo on my snowmobile, so that I could get used to the feel of a vehicle delivering power in that way, which was pretty awesome."
"It has probably been the shortest winter I have ever had out of the car. I spent Christmas and New Year training in the mountains and I even put a turbo on my snowmobile, so that I could get used to the feel of a vehicle delivering power in that way, which was pretty awesome."
Stopwatch
And it clearly worked because Hamilton sets a new best time of 1m23.952s.
Hamilton is on the medium Pirelli. He has followed that lap up with a 1m24.056s, the two fastest laps of the test so far.
Magnussen, on the hard, has also improved, to 1m26.210s.
Magnussen, on the hard, has also improved, to 1m26.210s.
Magnussen Jerez D3
And now a 1m25.751s for Magnussen.
Sutil has also joined the two Mercedes-powered cars on track.
And comes in. Hamilton has also pitted, leaving Magnussen out on track.
Nico Rosberg F1 Mercedes 2014
Our first question for Nico Rosberg is from Suvrajit Ganguly, who asks:
I know it's a very early stage in the game, but how different does the 2014-spec car feel from the cockpit? Are the differences in handling, sound and performance obvious?
Nico Rosberg: "The driving is similar. The tyres are harder at the moment so that makes it a bit more difficult....and the engine is different, especially because of having the low RPM - but good torque and needing to run higher gears in the corners. Last year we did a hairpin in first gear, this year it's maybe third."
While Rosberg answers your questions, Alonso and Sutil head out to join Magnussen on-track.
Phil Waldron is next up in our "Ask Nico" section:
Lewis doesn't seem as mentally strong as yourself and some others. Is that something you work on alongside all the other aspects of racing (fitness, diet, engineering etc) or do your Finnish genes just make you naturally more chilled out?
Nico Rosberg: "It's the Finnish genes ;)"
(Incidentally, Nico was very amused to find that one member of AUTOSPORT Live didn't know what a smiley was...)
Lewis doesn't seem as mentally strong as yourself and some others. Is that something you work on alongside all the other aspects of racing (fitness, diet, engineering etc) or do your Finnish genes just make you naturally more chilled out?
Nico Rosberg: "It's the Finnish genes ;)"
(Incidentally, Nico was very amused to find that one member of AUTOSPORT Live didn't know what a smiley was...)
Red flag
Red flag as Sutil appears to have crashed the Sauber.
He is sat at Turn 5 with the front wing and front-left wheel missing.
Peter from the Netherlands: Do you ever challenge your Dad in activities like karting or cycling perhaps? And if so, who wins?
Nico Rosberg: "No, but check out on YouTube - we went ice rallying against each other a couple of years ago. Guess who won...;)"
Nico Rosberg: "No, but check out on YouTube - we went ice rallying against each other a couple of years ago. Guess who won...;)"
Nico Rosberg F1 Mercedes 2014
Stratos from Edinburgh: What is more difficult - trying to master four-ball juggling or trying to figure out F1's latest rules?
Nico Rosberg: "Both are very difficult - not so much the rules but the whole technology involved in driving the car is really complicated and complex.
"For example, my whole steering wheel is custom made, and I have a smart phone section in the car which I set up to my own needs with whatever I want on there."
Josh from London: Are you surprised by Renault's performance in testing so far, and are you surprised by the reliability of the Mercedes engine?
Nico Rosberg: "We all expected a lot of reliability issues. I'm definitely surprised at our performance yesterday, that we were able to do so many laps.
"And Lewis again today is leading in terms of amount of laps and that's really important progress so early on to sort out the reliability challenge."
Nico Rosberg: "We all expected a lot of reliability issues. I'm definitely surprised at our performance yesterday, that we were able to do so many laps.
"And Lewis again today is leading in terms of amount of laps and that's really important progress so early on to sort out the reliability challenge."
Sutil update: It's not Turn 5, it's Turn 7. The position of the car and tyre marks indicate some sort of failure rather than a straight driving error.
Mark Gavan asks: Given the love-or-hate-quality to the new turbo engines this year, what is your favourite sound from F1's history?
Nico Rosberg: "Probably the V10s, because they were the most aggressive, the loudest, the most brutal."
Nico Rosberg: "Probably the V10s, because they were the most aggressive, the loudest, the most brutal."
KEKE ROSBERG
Nico's father Keke was one of the stars of F1's first turbo era.
He was not only the last man to beat the turbocharged factory teams to a title in the period in 1982 (in his Cosworth DFV powered Williams), but then produced one of the era's greatest turbo drives when the team got its hands on Honda power.
Last week's AUTOSPORT magazine celebrated the brutally powerful 1980s turbocharged grand prix cars, and Keke made appearances in both Derek Warwick's top 10 F1 turbo driver rankings and in our selection of the best turbo F1 drives.
Onto our next question - Kristian from Denmark asks: Of all the drivers in the paddock, who is the best dancer? My money is on you...
Nico Rosberg: "I have no idea! All I do know is that I am definitely not the best singer..."
Nico Rosberg: "I have no idea! All I do know is that I am definitely not the best singer..."
Nico Rosberg F1 Mercedes 2014
Our final question of "Ask Nico" relates to his relationship with team-mate Lewis Hamilton. Rosberg and Hamilton, remember, grew up in karts and have been competing ever since...
Brendan Delfino: You've grown up with Lewis in karting, however, since you've both come into Formula 1, Lewis has become a major celebrity. How much have you changed both as individuals and in your relationship with each other?
Nico Rosberg: "The relationship hasn't changed.
"It's just a bit more compicated in F1 because there's more involved, more people, more all over the place.
"Other than that it's pretty similar. We still have an occasional laugh together and it's still incredibly competitive as it always was."
Green flag
And we're up and running again, with just under an hour to go of day three in Jerez.
Alonso and Magnussen are the first two to head out.
And that's a wrap. Thanks for all your questions, and of course thanks to Nico Rosberg for taking the time to visit and answer as many as he could.
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GARY ANDERSON has a theory on the Sauber crash:
"Looking at the CCTV of the accident scene, I'd guess that the Sauber suffered a rear suspension failure. There's one set of solid black lines, which is Sutil being on the brakes, and there is the other set of broken tyre marks which will be the back of the car spinning.
"It's an odd place to go off as you are still under power, and if something happens at the rear it steers the car one way or the other. But there is no confirmation from the team on this and as I didn't see what happened, that's based only on what we could see after the crash.
"The interesting thing here will be to see how the anteater nose stood up to the impact. It appeared to be off the car after the impact, so that needs to be investigated because this is the first test of the new nose structures."
"Looking at the CCTV of the accident scene, I'd guess that the Sauber suffered a rear suspension failure. There's one set of solid black lines, which is Sutil being on the brakes, and there is the other set of broken tyre marks which will be the back of the car spinning.
"It's an odd place to go off as you are still under power, and if something happens at the rear it steers the car one way or the other. But there is no confirmation from the team on this and as I didn't see what happened, that's based only on what we could see after the crash.
"The interesting thing here will be to see how the anteater nose stood up to the impact. It appeared to be off the car after the impact, so that needs to be investigated because this is the first test of the new nose structures."
Vergne has also gone out in the Toro Rosso, so we have three cars on-track.
Alonso appears to be on the hard Jerez-spec tyre, so he is unlikely to be challenging the top times.
Vergne finally gets a proper time in, but he is still eighth.
Vergne finally gets a proper time in, but he is still eighth.
Vergne now does a 1m30.595s, the quickest time achieved by any of the Renault-engined cars so far this week.
He goes quicker again to move ahead of Sutil's Sauber.
But he comes by the pits rather slowly and things don't look good.
By: Sam Tremayne, Matt Beer, Kevin Turner, Pablo Elizalde
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