Fernando Alonso broke Lewis Hamilton’s clean sweep of testing to take fastest time on the final day of pre-season testing.
Alonso’s time of 1m 16.625s was narrowly slower than Hamilton’s fastest time on day one but the Spaniard will still be please to set not only the fastest time but also the second highest number of laps in the sessions.
Willows will consider that they are peaking at the right point of testing this season. Last year it was a different story where the team dominated the first test before falling back into the midfield by the start of the season proper. A repeat does not look likely.
Also impressing on Day 3 were Cooper Lee in 2nd, who continued to build a healthy reputation for himself, and Jenson Button in 3rd who set the fastest first sector of all, but was unable to put a complete lap together to overhaul Alonso.
It was a largely trouble-free session for teams with an engine failure for Robert Kubica late in the session the only mechanical issue of note.
The teams will now pack up their trailers and head to Melbourne for the opening race of the season.
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