It was a gloomy start to Day Three at the Circuit de Catalunya with rain falling as the drivers ventured out.The wet track gave the drivers valuable time on the Pirelli wet and intermediate tyres, however, it also claimed a few cars.
Pastor Maldonado was the first off in the wet, spinning his Williams FW33 into the gravel at Turn Five, while an hour later his fellow rookie Sergio Perez crashed his Sauber C30 at Turn Four.
But it wasn't just the rookies who were having a tough time of things as Felipe Massa brought out the red flags twice in less than half an hour. The Ferrari driver spun his F150th Italia at Turn Four and again at Turn Seven.
Massa and Toro Rosso test driver Daniel Ricciardo were the early pace-setters in the wet while Lewis Hamilton took over as the track began to dry out, leading the way at the lunchbreak.
But, by the close of play with the track completely dry, it was Rosberg who stormed to the front of the pack with his 1:23.168, which was 0.147s quicker than the week's previous best, which had been set by Sebastian Vettel on Friday.
The Mercedes GP driver's best was on a short qualifying style run while he had been down in the 1:29s when putting his car through a 15-lap stint.
Renault's Vitaly Petrov took second, 0.295 seconds slower than Rosberg, while Hamilton finished up in third, 0.690s off the pace.
Hamilton's day, though, was not without problems as reliability gremlins during the morning session repeatedly resulted in him having to return to the pits after just one or two laps.
Maldonado was next in line, ahead of Red Bull's Mark Webber. The latter was the final driver to bring out the red flags when he stopped out on track at Turn One in the final minute of the day's play. Webber was 1.827s off the pace.
Despite a water leak problem, Jarno Trulli put his Lotus T128 up into sixth place, finishing ahead of Perez and Force India's Adrian Sutil.
Sebastien Buemi, who only ran in the afternoon after replacing Toro Rosso test driver Ricciardo, and Massa completed the top ten.
Times
01. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:23.168 92 laps
02. Vitaly Petrov Lotus Renault 1:23.463 + 0.295 93 laps
03. Lewis Hamilton McLaren 1:23.858 + 0.690 93 laps
04. Pastor Maldonado Williams 1:24.815 + 1.647 60 laps
05. Mark Webber Red Bull 1:24.995 + 1.827 139 laps
06. Jarno Trulli Team Lotus 1:25.454 + 2.286 48 laps
07. Sergio Perez Sauber 1:25.557 + 2.389 115 laps
08. Adrian Sutil Force India 1:25.720 + 2.552 102 laps
09. Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso 1:26.155 + 2.987 31 laps
10. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:26.508 + 3.340 123 laps
11. Timo Glock Virgin 1:26.598 + 3.430 97 laps
12. Giorgio Mondini Hispania 1:28.178 + 5.010 39 laps
13. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso 1:28.329 + 5.161 42 laps
14. Narain Karthikeyan Hispania 1:30.722 + 7.554 32 laps
Source: Planet-F1
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