Hulkenberg heads Grosjean on third day of test

Nico Hulkenberg set the fastest time of the third day of the opening pre-season test as Haas continued its strong start.

While the Force India driver had been quickest in the morning session, Hulkenberg went on to lower his best time in the afternoon by setting a 1:23.110 on the supersoft tyre. Hulkenberg's lap was the second fastest time of the week so far, with only Sebastian Vettel's 1:22.810 - set on the ultrasoft tyre - on Tuesday being lower.

Romain Grosjean ensured it was newcomers Haas with the second quickest time on day three, although he was over 2.5s adrift of Hulkenberg. The Frenchman set his personal best on the soft tyre late in the afternoon session and ended the day as the lead Ferrari-powered car as he finished 0.1s clear of Kimi Raikkonen.

Raikkonen endured a frustrating morning as he completed just four laps and failed to set a time, with a fuel system problem to blame. However, Ferrari responded impressively to end with 78 and the third fastest time, although there was no repeat of the ultrasoft run from day two.

There was a much more encouraging day for Renault as Kevin Magnussen got his first taste of the RS16 and more than doubled the team's mileage for the week. Jolyon Palmer had completed just 79 laps across the opening two days but Magnussen managed to break the 100-lap barrier. It wasn't a completely smooth day for Renault though, with Magnussen stopping on the pit straight to bring out the red flag in the afternoon session and again needing recovering from the end of the pit lane later on.

Nico Rosberg drove the Mercedes in the morning session and managed 74 laps before handing over to team-mate Lewis Hamilton for the afternoon. Rosberg's time of 1:26.084 was enough to leave him fifth at the end of the day while Hamilton was eighth behind the Toro Rosso of Carlos Sainz - who stopped in the opening hour but recovered to complete a mammoth 161 laps - and Felipe Nasr in the 2015 Sauber.

Having trialled an innovative bargeboard and floor design on day two, Mercedes was again testing a number of new parts on Wednesday. A new nose design was at the circuit and ready to be used but the team wanted a stable baseline to evaluate its other upgrades and plan on introducing the new nose on Thursday instead.

Daniil Kvyat was hit by reliability issues in the morning session but still managed 74 laps across the day, finishing ninth ahead of Felipe Massa. Jenson Button was tenth as a hydraulic leak ended McLaren's day early, while new Manor driver Rio Haryanto set the slowest time - 5.1s off the pace - but completed an encouraging 78 laps despite spinning off in the morning and causing a red flag.