Date           Sunday 20 February 2011Track          Circuit de Catalunya   Driver          Nico Rosberg  

No of Laps              92 laps                Best Lap Time   1:23.168       Kms Covered             428 kms        Track Length    4.655 kms     

Weather                 Cloudy with sunny spells              

Nico Rosberg continued the MERCEDES GP PETRONAS team's pre-season programme at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona Sunday on the third day of this week's test.

The track was damp for much of the morning following overnight rain, and Nico's programme was restricted to several exploratory runs to gain experience of the Pirelli intermediate tyre. Conditions improved for the start of the afternoon session, allowing the team and Nico to complete a very constructive programme. Nico continued his familiarisation with the KERS system in conjunction with set-up comparisons over longer runs to further develop the team's understanding of car and tyre behaviour. His day concluded with qualifying simulations, including operation of KERS and the adjustable rear wing.

Nico completed 92 laps today, bringing his total lap count for this test to 223 laps. This equates to more than 1030 kms and demonstrates an encouraging step forward in reliability from earlier tests this winter.

Michael Schumacher will complete the fourth and final day of testing on Monday.

Nico Rosberg: "It was interesting running with the intermediates this morning and, although the warm-up is tricky, we definitely improved our understanding of the tyres. Our long runs this afternoon included some aero work in preparation for our next upgrade package before going into lower-fuel, new-tyre running at the end of the day. We made good progress in understanding the car and the tyres, and the reliability was solid once again. Overall, I've enjoyed two positive and productive days here in Barcelona."

TIMES

Pos  /   Driver    /  Car  /Time   /Laps  

1.      Nico Rosberg            MERCEDES GP PETRONAS    1:23.168 92     2.      Vitaly Petrov           Lotus Renault           1:23.463  93     3.      Lewis Hamilton          McLaren                 1:23.858 93     4.      Pastor Maldonado                Williams 1:24.815        60     5.      Mark Webber             Red Bull                        1:24.995 138    6.      Jarno Trulli            Team Lotus                      1:25.454 48     7.      Sergio Perez            Sauber                  1:25.557 115    8.      Adrian Sutil            Force India                     1:26.720 102    9.      Sebastien Buemi         Toro Rosso                      1:26.155 31     10.     Felipe Massa            Ferrari                 1:26.508 123    11.     Timo Glock                      Marussia Virgin         1:26.598 97     12.     Giorgio Mondini         HRT                             1:28.178 39     13.     Daniel Ricciardo                Toro Rosso 1:28.329        42     14.     Narain Karthikeyan      HRT                             1:30.722 42     (Please note all timings are unofficial and correct as of 17:00hrs CET)