Rosberg leads, Alonso hits the track for first time

 Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz), Feb 9 (F1plus Team). - Germany's Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) was the fastest on the third day of testing Formula One teams in the Jerez circuit, where also the Spanish Fernando Alonso debuted with his new Ferrari F2012, which suffered some hydraulic problems.

Rosberg ended the day, between the morning session and afternoon, with 118 laps and in the morning he made the fastest time of 1:17.613.

The German trials ended today in Jerez and his team will already be seen in the next test, set in Barcelona's Montmelo circuit, and by then, they will use the car for 2012.

However, it was the Franco-Swiss Romain Grosjean (Lotus) who made the fastest time of the day using the 2012 specs car with a clock registering 1:18.419. The young driver also debuted in the Jerez track with the Lotus E20.

Fernando Alonso, in his first try at Jerez, completed 67 laps in total, including 29 in the morning, with a best lap of 1:20.412 on a day that was marked for the Italian team with hydraulic problems in the new car.

In spite the 90-min break to fix the issue, the Spaniard driver continued his effort, just as Felipe Massa for the two previous days, with the task of collecting data on the behavior of the new car. Alonso will return tomorrow at Jerez track in the fourth and final day of testing that took place throughout this week.

Other newcomers were out today and reigning world champion German Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull), and Lewis Hamilton (McLaren), also world champion (2008), both with their new machines for this season, the RB8 the MP4-27, respectively.

Vettel became the third fastest time of the day (1:19.297), after 96 laps, and excelled at Hamilton 167/100 (1:19.464), who was fourth after 80 laps.

The Frenchman Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso) finished the day with the fifth fastest time (1:19.734), only 36 thousandths less than the sixth, the Mexican Sergio Perez (Sauber), whose day was interrupted by a problem of oil transmission.

One of the significant events of the day and which led to the first red flag, featured rookie Frenchman Jules Bianchi (Force India), loosing grip and hitting the barriers damaging his rear wing in the process.

Here are the best times of the session: