Magnussen fastest on Jerez debut

F1 Test, Jerez, Circuit Permanente de Jerez

Kevin Magnussen proved fastest on day 3 of Jerez, impressing on his first half day in the new McLaren. Again, Red Bull Racing and other Renault runners were in trouble as they see their lost time increase.

Just like the previous two days, key was reliabiliy to get some laptimes in to allow aerodynamic and mechanical verification. This proved to go well again for Mercedes AMG, even though they had to replace the gearbox over lunch. Hamilton ended the day with a reasonable 62 laps.

McLaren was also again runnign fine, having encountered little issues with first Buton in the car, switching over to Magnussen after the lunch break. Together they managed to do 92 laps.

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Felipe Massa also enjoyed his debut at Williams, going second fastest and completing 47 laps. The team must certainly feel happy to have switched to Mercedes, seeing that Renault is in such trouble at the moment. Nico Hulkenberg in the Force India meanwhile added 17 laps on Mercedes' tally.

For Ferrari, things went well too, with Alonso debuting in the F14T, enduring a single stoppage at around 11:00 but still covering 58 laps by the end of the day. Fellow Ferrari powered teams Sauber and Marussia did less laps with Sutil in the Sauber completing 34 laps until he stopped on track after losing the nose cone of his car, while Marussia debuted their car with Chilton completing 5 trouble-free laps towards the end of the day.

Jean-Eric Vergne in the Toro managed 30 laps but repeatedly stopped on track, however without major apparent issues, always returning to the test a bit later.

Worse off was Frijns in the Caterham, completing just 10 laps, and Red Bull Racing, where Daniel Ricciardo had probably imagined his debut in the RB10 differently. The championship winning team did 2 laps before stopping on track in the third with smoke coming out of the car. It triggered the end of the day for the team and the return of Newey to Milton Keynes to help resolve the problems.