Hulkenberg ahead as Ferrari hit trouble

F1 Test, Barcelona, Circuit de Catalunya

Nico Hulkenberg topped the times in the first 4 hours of testing on Day 3 at Barcelona. The German who ran the team's VJM09 for the first time completed 37 laps, albeit by far not as quick as the laptimes seen yesterday.

Nico Rosberg was once again the first man out on track, but he was soon followed by most cars to complete an installation lap. At Mercedes however, being obviously a step ahead of the competition, Rosberg didn't waste any time and immediately set off to complete 3 laps, setting the first time on the board after just 3 minutes of running.

Yet again, most cars in the morning went out with testing equipment. Large pitot tube arrays were seen on the Red Bull, Williams and McLaren, while the latter team also had pitot tubes inside the main exhaust pipe to measure the exhaust gas pressure.

While others were already well into a testing rythm, Felipe Massa only left the pit after 30 minutes, but his debut wasn't going to last very long, as just when he arrived at the end of the pitlane, the light switched red due to Sainz with the Toro Rosso coming to a halt just before Turn 1.

Kimi Raikkonen's debut in the SF16-H meanwhile didn't really go to plan, as Ferrari encountered cooling issues during the entire morning, allowing Raikkonen to complete just 4 laps. More on that later today...