Jerez – Day 3: Schumacher in the top 8, Kubica leads

Robert Kubica in the BMW Sauber recorded the fastest time on the third day of free practice in Jerez. On the Spanish circuit, the Pole outpaced Lewis Hamilton – who was the leader yesterday – and Felipe Massa, two thousandths of a second behind the McLaren driver’s best time.

Kubica took advantage of testing Bridgestone’s experimental slick tires for 2009 to set the best time on this sunny day ahead of the McLaren and Ferrari. He then leads Mark Webber in the Red Bull by already five tenths and Timo Glock. The new second driver for Toyota made a mark this week and shows that his team’s choice might have been the right one compared to Ralf Schumacher, who finished last with Force India.

The second McLaren, that of Pedro de la Rosa, present since Tuesday with Hamilton, achieved the 6th fastest time, five hundredths ahead of Piquet’s Renault – one of the most active drivers on this penultimate day of private testing in 2007.

Michael Schumacher was back today with Ferrari, and after a good first week of Spanish testing in Barcelona, the seven-time world champion is ranked ‘only’ 8th with slick tires – half a second slower than his teammate equipped with grooved tires.

The only Honda present under this name with Barrichello is 9th ahead of Nick Heidfeld in the other BMW. The German driver is the first driver in the standings not to have broken the one minute twenty mark per lap.

The two Toro Rosso cars finish 12th and 13th, Vettel slightly faster than Sébastien Bourdais by a few thousandths.

The second Red Bull, driven by Coulthard, is only 17th, far, very far from his teammate having tried completely opposite setups.

Force India, testing a range of drivers this week, is being driven by Liuzzi and Ralf Schumacher. They are 19th and 20th respectively, with the German having a particularly bad day with two off-track excursions at the same corner.

Sebastian Vettel, Takuma Sato, and Kazuki Nakajima also caused red flags during the day.

Jerez Testing – Day 3 – Result