The Force India driver, the only man to try the red-sidewalled tyres today, finished with a best time of 1:23.110 in his first outing in the new VJM09m, having taken over from teammate Sergio Perez.

Newcomer Haas had another promising day, with Romain Grosjean jumping up to second place in the final minutes of the session thanks to a run on soft tyres.

The Frenchman also completed 82 laps as the American team continued to make an impression in its first official outing.

Ferrari, which had topped the first two days of testing, had to settle for third place today as Kimi Raikkonen made his debut in the new car.

The Finn's day, however, started poorly and he was forced to stay in the garage for a long period of time as the team worked on a fuel pump failure.

Raikkonen finished nearly three seconds off Hulkenberg's pace, having set his best time with medium tyres.

Kevin Magnussen was another man testing the 2016 car for the first time today, the Dane making his official debut as a Renault driver.

After teammate Jolyon Palmer hit trouble on the opening two days, Magnussen enjoyed a better outing and covered over 100 laps.

His day came to an early finish though, after his car stopped on the main straight in the final hour of the session.

Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton shared driving duties as Mercedes moved to keep them fresh given its unprecedented reliability over the past two days.

The German was the quickest of the two as the team managed over 150 laps once more.

Carlos Sainz was the busiest man of the day, however, the Toro Rosso driver covering 159 rounds of the Spanish track on his way to the sixth quickest time of the day. That despite causing a red flag early on.

Daniil Kvyat finished down in ninth in his first outing in the new Red Bull RB12, Felipe Massa completing the top 10 in the Williams.

After two solid days of work, the engine-related woes returned for McLaren-Honda, which managed only 51 laps with Jenson Button at the wheel of the MP4-31.

Smoke was seen pouring from the back of the car in the pitlane after the Briton had managed just five laps in the afternoon session, and Button did not return to the track after that, finishing down in 10th position.

Rio Haryanto took over from Manor teammate Pascal Wehrlein and was slowest, over six seconds off the pace. His day included a spin in the morning.