Sergio Perez was the surprise fastest man of Day Three of the final pre-season test taking place in Barcelona this week, although Sauber‘s day was disrupted by a powertrain problem.
His fastest lap of 1:21.761 is the quickest time of the week so far, but was set on the supersoft Pirelli tyres on a low fuel load. Perez completed 95 laps in total.
“We have had an interesting day as we carried out qualifying practice and race simulation,” said technical director James Key. “In the morning we started off with some general set up work, and then went into a qualifying practice, which was the first time we had run the car on low fuel. This was also the first time for Sergio to go through all those procedures from Q1 to Q3. He did a good and controlled set of laps, setting a time of 1:22.042 minutes on soft tyres and 1:21.761 on the super soft compound.
“In the afternoon we started a race simulation, but unfortunately this was stopped early due to a KERS problem, which meant we could not complete the laps we wanted.”
Perez was pleased with his efforts today, undeterred by the technical problem. “We did a lot of useful preparation work for the first race weekend,” said the Mexican driver. “Although we could not complete the race simulation because of a technical problem, for me it was an interesting and positive programme. It was my last day of testing. I feel ready and I can't wait to race!”
Kamui Kobayashi will be in the car tomorrow for the final day of pre-season testing for the team.
