Barcelona test - day three: 27 November.

Luca Badoer completed a clean sweep of fastest times as the Barcelona group test came to a close, keeping Ferrari ahead of the rest of the field.

27 Nov 2003

Luca Badoer completed a clean sweep of fastest times as the Barcelona group test came to a close, keeping Ferrari ahead of the rest of the field.

The Italian, who had topped the times on the opening two days of the first Formula One action since the 2003 season finale in Japan, clocked a 1min 17.300secs best in the course of his 72 laps of the Circuit de Catalunya, marginally slower than he had managed on day two. The technical programme for the day centred on development work with tyres, electronics and engine, and Badoer again shared his workload with fellow test drivers Felipe Massa and Luciano Burti.

Jenson Button was again the 'best of the rest' as he completed a third day of running in BAR's 'concept' car, and lapped just over a tenth of a second slower than Badoer as he racked up another 87 laps of data collection on the Brackley-based team's development chassis.

Where team-mate to be Massa had claimed third spot for current employer Ferrari on Wednesday, new Sauber recruit Giancarlo Fisichella put the C23 ahead of the Brazilian to boost the Swiss team's morale as it heads into the December tests. Fisi clocked 1min 17.747secs to pip Massa by a couple of hundredths as he used the wet morning conditions to run a rain tyre programme for Bridgestone, before combining similar work in the afternoon with evaluation of a new power steering system which will be fitted to the 2004 car.

Burti was again out on behalf of Ferrari, and this time got the better of Takuma Sato, who brought up the rear of the six-car field in the 'standard' BAR-Honda 004, despite completing only 16 laps after crashing out, without injury, in the morning session.

Leading times (27 November) - Barcelona:

Luca Badoer Ferrari-Ferrari 1m 17.300s 72 laps*Jenson Button BAR-Honda 1m 17.497s 87 lapsGiancarlo Fisichella Sauber-Petronas 1m 17.747s 66 laps*Felipe Massa Ferrari-Ferrari 1m 17.766s 67 laps*Luciano Burti Ferrari-Ferrari 1m 17.811s 16 laps*Takuma Sato BAR-Honda 1m 18.066s 108 laps