McLaren Jerez test notes day three

Drivers - Lewis Hamilton
Location - Circuito de Jerez
Track length - 4.423km

Weather - Cold but dry at the start of the morning, quickly growing overcast. Started raining around late morning and persisted until the end of running. Maximum ambient temperature 9.6C, maximum track temperature 15.0C

Laps completed - 68
Kilometres covered - 300km
Best laptime - 1m23.985 at 09:39

Programme

With wet weather forecast to hit the circuit today, the test team had specifically devised a run programme to make best use of the day.

The only dry running of the day took place in the morning, which the team used to undertake a number of aero mapping runs. Conducted at lower speeds, the only dry times of the day were therefore not representative of the team's overall pace.

As the rain started falling, focus shifted towards evaluating Bridgestone's wet and intermediate compounds. The colder temperatures made progress difficult, particularly as extra attention needed to be paid to brake material choice in the cool conditions.

For the afternoon, Lewis focused on a number of longer runs to understand how the tyres behaved -- but the poor weather eventually became too much, even for the full-wet option.

For tomorrow, the team is hoping for dry running in order to give Lewis an opportunity to put miles on MP4-25 in more representative conditions.

Driver for day four - Lewis Hamilton

Duration of test - Four days (February 10-13)

-source: mclaren