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Heidfeld quickest on Renault debut

Nick Heidfeld set the fastest time of the third test day at Jerez during his audition to substitute for Robert Kubica at Renault

The German set his 1m20.361s best at the beginning of an eight-lap run, seemingly on the soft or super soft tyre - given the immediate two-second drop-off and then steady but sharp decline over the rest of the stint.

Fernando Alonso took second place, 0.132 seconds behind Heidfeld. Ferrari was busy on track from the outset and posted its best time during a flurry of two and three-lap charges mid-morning.

Alonso then spent the afternoon with the F150th Italia stacked with fuel for several longer runs. The most impressive of which was 19 laps - lap three being a 1m25.4s and lap 17 a 1m26.6s, a drop-off of just 1.2s over 14 laps.

Mercedes was regularly in the low 1m21s during quick bursts this morning, but third-placed Michael Schumacher stuck to mainly long runs after lunch.

The MGP W02 showed signs of improved consistency today, staying within 1.3s of Schumacher's best lap for 13 laps before slipping by around 0.5s per lap over the next five.

McLaren lost a chunk of time in the middle of the day due to a shortage of spare parts. Come the afternoon, Lewis Hamilton took on a few single-lap bursts, jumping to fourth.

Kamui Kobayashi caused the day's first two red flags. The first came just over 20 minutes in when he stopped on the inside of the track at the exit of the Dry Sack hairpin with an electrical fault. The second was an hour from the end when he parked up on the escape road at the chicane with an engine problem.

But the Sauber's fastest lap of the day was still fifth overall. The time came on the lap prior to the first stoppage this morning. This afternoon, Kobayashi took on an 18-lap stint holding firm from the 1m25s to the 1m26s 14 laps later.

Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel did not commit to many long runs, mainly sticking to the staple five to eight-lap set-up tweaking and tyre evaluation stints. His best time was the only one of those in the 1m21s to be set during a run of as many as eight laps.

But the Red Bull was matching Ferrari's consistency of pace this afternoon, with Vettel posting 1m22.8s on lap four of a stint and 1m23.4s 11 laps later, losing just over a second.

Sebastien Buemi (Toro Rosso) was never on track for more than six laps at a time. His fastest time came at the start of a four-lap run.

The Swiss then caused the final red flag when he stopped on the outside of the entry to Turn 9 with 10 minutes to go, leaving him seventh.

Heikki Kovalainen got some significant mileage in the Lotus T128 following reliability troubles for the car in the previous two days. His regular times ranged from 1m23s to 1m26s on a series of short runs during the afternoon. Then he posted a 1m21.7s with a single burst at the end to move to eighth.

Williams was once again delayed by a KERS problem, though Rubens Barrichello was able to get through a variety of mid-length stints after lunch and end up ninth.

The times varied widely as the team appeared to be sampling various tyre and fuel combinations. The FW33 seemed able to hang on to a set of tyres through a 10-lap run in the 1m24s.

It was short runs all day for Paul di Resta in his first outing in the Force India VJM04. The variation in times suggested the team was working on things other than performance.

The Scot had complained of struggling with the brakes earlier in the day and then caused a red flag when he spun off to the outside of Turn 9 with half an hour of running remaining, having locked the rear brakes.

Virgin worked on its long-run pace with 19-lap stints either side of lunch. Jerome D'Ambrosio's times worked down from 1m29s-1m30s on the first run to 1m27s-1m29s on the second.

His best effort of the day was a 1m25s and that came on the third lap of nine earlier this morning, indicating that the MVR-02 is still some way from showing its full potential.

Pos  Driver              Car                   Time       Gap       Laps
 1.  Nick Heidfeld       Renault               1m20.361s            86
 2.  Fernando Alonso     Ferrari               1m20.493s  + 0.132s  131
 3.  Michael Schumacher  Mercedes              1m21.054s  + 0.693s  114
 4.  Lewis Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      1m21.099s  + 0.738s  36
 5.  Kamui Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari        1m21.242s  + 0.881s  84
 6.  Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull-Renault      1m21.574s  + 1.213s  98
 7.  Sebastien Buemi     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m21.681s  + 1.320s  92
 8.  Heikki Kovalainen   Lotus-Renault         1m21.711s  + 1.350s  61
 9.  Rubens Barrichello  Williams-Cosworth     1m22.227s  + 1.866s  99
10.  Paul di Resta       Force India-Mercedes  1m22.945s  + 2.584s  64
11.  Jerome D'Ambrosio   Virgin-Cosworth       1m25.471s  + 5.110s  72

All timing unofficial

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