Barcelona F1 test: Alonso leads the way on day three

The majority of teams dedicated the afternoon to the first full-race simulations of 2013, meaning that the morning order was largely unchanged.

It also meant Alonso, who eventually worked his way down to a 1m21.875s before lunch, stayed on top for the remainder of the third day in Catalunya.

His time is the fastest seen so far at Barcelona and almost half a second quicker than the corresponding soft-compound best of 2012 winter testing at the track.

As was the case in the morning, Nico Hulkenberg and Romain Grosjean occupied second and third respectively, both within four tenths of a second of Alonso's time.

Grosjean was the first of the day's runners to complete a full race simulation, which included four pitstops.

Thanks largely to that stint he also ended as Thursday's busiest driver on 119 laps.

Others ran long-race simulations of their own, although some were interrupted when Giedo van der Garde's Caterham stopped on the Turn 3 entry 15 minutes before the session's end.

Van der Garde had been one of the afternoon's few improvers, and had just set his best time - a low 1m26s - before causing the stoppage.

Max Chilton also improved in the Marussia, while Valtteri Bottas, taking over from Pastor Maldonado in the FW35, ended the day sixth, fractions of a second behind his team-mate.

Jenson Button, Adrian Sutil, Mark Webber and Jean-Eric Vergne occupied seventh through to 10th, just as they did at the close of the morning.

Both Webber and Vergne broke into triple figures on the lap count.

Sutil meanwhile will hand over to Force India's 2012 reserve driver Jules Bianchi, his main rival for a 2013 drive with the team, for the final day tomorrow.

TODAY'S TIMES

Pos  Driver               Team           Time      Gap      Laps  Tyre
 1.  Fernando Alonso      Ferrari        1m21.875s           97   Soft
 2.  Nico Hulkenberg      Sauber         1m22.160s  +0.285   91   Soft
 3.  Romain Grosjean      Lotus          1m22.188s  +0.313   119  Medium
 4.  Nico Rosberg         Mercedes       1m22.611s  +0.736   108  Soft
 5.  Pastor Maldonado     Williams       1m22.675s  +0.800   79   Soft
 6.  Valtteri Bottas      Williams       1m22.826s  +0.951   68   Hard
 7.  Jenson Button        McLaren        1m22.840s  +0.965   71   Soft
 8.  Adrian Sutil         Force India    1m22.877s  +1.002   78   Soft
 9.  Mark Webber          Red Bull       1m23.024s  +1.149   108  Medium
10.  Jean-Eric Vergne     Toro Rosso     1m23.366s  +1.491   106  Soft
11.  Max Chilton          Marussia       1m25.690s  +3.815   58   Soft
12.  Giedo van der Garde  Caterham       1m26.177s  +4.302   93   Soft

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