Mercedes are a little bit more optimistic as Nico Rosberg set the fastest time of the day which was hampered by wet weather late morning and early afternoon. Schumacher had been pessimistic talking to the press yesterday but after looking at the data he was more confident as the team believes they were carrying more fuel than others.

Nico’s time was only 0.072s slower than the other Nico, “the Hulk” Hulkenberg, who set the fastest time of the whole test, so far, yesterday. He also managed to complete an impressive 128 laps, more than anyone else today.

Fastest times:

P Driver Car Best time Laps Diff. 1 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m20.686s 128 2 Sebastian Buemi Toro Rosso (Ferrari) 1m21.413s 106 +0.727 3 Jensen Button McLaren (Mercedes) 1m21.450s 105 +0.764 4 Rubens Barrichello Williams (Cosworth) 1m21.975s 101 +1.289 5 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m22.344s 115 +1.658 6 Vitaly Petrov Renault 1m22.523s 68 +1.837 7 Adrian Sutil Force India (Mercedes) 1m22.606s 61 +1.920 8 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull (Renault) 1m23.254s 51 +2.568 9 Jarno Trulli Lotus (Cosworth) 1m25.059s 102 +4.373 10 Kamui Kobayshi BMW Sauber (Ferrari) 1m26.216s 105 +5.530 11 Timo Glock Virgin (Cosworth) 1m26.305 31 +5.619

Over the last 2 days, 3 different teams with different engines have produced the fastest lap times on low fuel that are very close to each other: 1)Hulkenberg (Williams) 1m20.614s; 2) Alonso (Ferrari) 1m20.637s and 3) Rosberg (Mercedes) 1m20.686s

At the end of the session, before it was unfortunately cut short by a red flag due to Barrichello, both Rosberg and Button were putting in quick 1m21secs laps. Button achieved a purple sector 1 (fastest of the session) which was then bettered by Rosberg a short time later. However, both drivers in those laps did not come close to Rosberg’s time this morning which suggests that the track conditions in sectors 2 and 3 had not dried sufficiently and that both drivers could possibly go quicker than Rosberg fastest time set in the morning.

Rosberg in the Mercedes was quicker than Button at the very end of the session but of course we don’t know the fuel loads

Most teams did race simulation runs today – Rosberg, Massa and Button were all doing 1m27s pace on a heavy fuel load at the start of their runs

Vettel was absent on track for most of the day as the Red Bull fixed a fuel pump problem

Not a good day for Kobayashi in the Sauber as his quickest time was 5.5secs off the quickest. However, they must have concentrated solely on heavy fuel running and the rain may have caused the times to seem slower than they actually were. His quickest time was on lap 7 of the 105 laps he completed today without any apparent technical issues. Kobayashi put in some exciting laps in the rain … even going round in slicks at one point!

Jake McMillan

Photos from todays action: