F1 testing in Bahrain, day 3: Hamilton leads with Mercedes in the morning

Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time on the morning of the third day of F1 testing in Bahrain. In Sakhir the Mercedes driver tried different set-ups and was much faster than the rest of the group. Hamilton interspersed one fast lap and one slow lap, a tactic also adopted by Jenson Button with McLaren. The Englishman from the Woking team ended the morning with the third fastest time, behind Esteban Gutierrez's Sauber.

Pastor Maldonado lapped with the new Lotus E22, setting the fourth fastest time. After spending a lot of time in the pits the Venezuelan covered 18 laps. Returning to the track shortly before the break, Maldonado was stopped by a gearbox problem causing a red flag.

Daniel Ricciardo has done a few laps with the Red Bull RB10 but the world champion team is still running with a reduced pace trying to cover more kilometres.

Marussia caused the other red flag of the morning when Max Chilton stopped on the track. A few laps also for Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari. Only 12 passes for the Finn, slowed down by telemetry problems. According to rumours, the team replaced the engine during the night with a different specification unit to the one used until yesterday. Raikkonen ended the morning with the eighth fastest time.

Look at the photos from the third day of F1 testing in Bahrain

F1 BAHRAIN TEST TIMES DAY 3 MORNING

Pos Driver Team Time Gap Laps 1. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m34.263s 25 2. Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 1m37.180s +2.917s 45 3. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m37.258s +2.995s 28 4. Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault 1m39.642s +5.379s 19 5. Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1m40.339s +6.076s 17 6. Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 1m40.781s +6.518s 23 7. Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso-Renault 1m40.801s +6.538 s 27 8. Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m41.336s +7.073s 12 9. Marcus Ericsson Caterham-Renault 1m43.602s +9.339s 33 10. Max Chilton Marussia-Ferrari 1m46.672s +12.409s 4 11. Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes no time 55