Maldonado fastest for Williams at Barcelona

Pastor Maldonado tops the third day of testing at Barcelona for Williams.

There was a surprise at Barcelona pre-season testing as Williams driver Pastor Maldonado set the fastest time of the third day of the test, leading Michael Schumacher and Kamui Kobayashi.


Maldonado topped the times today

The Venezuelan Williams driver set his best time on the super soft tyres, early on in the session, similar to what Nico Hulkenberg did yesterday. Interestingly though, Maldonado's time was around three tenths faster than Nico Hulkenberg's yesterday. Maldonado, who had a disappointing 2011, drove 106 laps of the Circuit de Catalunya. It is the fastest time of the three days at Barcelona so far. This is proof of how testing is notoriously unreliable. Michael Schumacher was 2nd fastest for Mercedes today, and after a troublesome testing day on Tuesday, Schumacher completed a busy programme today, completing over 100 laps in the W03. Kamui Kobayashi was 3rd for Sauber, completing 99 laps and was just over a second behind Maldonado's time. The Japanese driver caused a red flag just after the lunch break when his car stopped on track. Jenson Button was fourth in the McLaren MP4-27, who continued to pile on the laps, keeping with their philosophy of doing lots of laps in the day. Button completed 114 rounds of the track today, with his time of 1.23.918 earning him the fastest time of the "big three" teams.


Jean-Eric Vergne in action for Toro Rosso

Jean-Eric Vergne was fifth for Toro Rosso, who look to be in good shape so far. The Frenchman drove just short of 80 laps as he clocked up a best time of 1.24.433. Mark Webber ended the day sixth for Red Bull, but the Australian's day was interrupted when he brought out a red flag with half an hour to go when he stopped on the track. Red Bull certainly look the team to beat so far, despite the interruption today. Felipe Massa was seventh for Ferrari, with a best time of 1.24.771. The Brazilian had a tough day though, and spent most of the morning in the pits with a technical problem. He returned to the track to set the seventh fastest time, before bringing out the final red flag of the day when he stopped while leaving the pits. Yesterday, Massa's Ferrari team mate Fernando Alonso stated that his team were "not where we want to be." Paul di Resta was eighth for Force India, who topped yesterday's running with Nico Hulkenberg. The Scot's best time was over nine tenths slower than Massa's. Di Resta had a troublesome day though, with the Force India man losing the engine cover of his VJM05 during the day. Timo Glock had his first running in the 2012 test sessions, driving last year's Marussia car, and was ninth. Vitaly Petrov was tenth in the Caterham, the Russian suffering suspension issues during the day.

Day Three's times in full:

	Driver	Team	Time
1	Pastor Maldonado	Williams	1.22.391
2	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	1.23.384
3	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber	1.23.582
4	Jenson Button	McLaren	1.23.918
5	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso	1.24.433
6	Mark Webber	Red Bull	1.24.771
7	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1.24.771
8	Paul di Resta	Force India	1.25.646
9	Timo Glock	Marussia*	1.26.173
10	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham	1.26.448

*2011 Car

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