Rosberg stopped by engine shutdown

JEREZ, Spain - Nico Rosberg recorded an impressive 93 laps before his Mercedes engine shut down on the track on Tuesday (Feb 3) in another mishap for the 2014 Formula 1 title-holder team.

"Engine shutdown brought @nico_rosberg's last run to a halt. The crew are looking into it now," Mercedes tweeted.

The incident came the day after team mate and Driver’s title-holder Lewis Hamilton had to end his drive because of a water leak.

SLOW START

Rosberg had earlier posted what was the third-best time of the day more than halfway through the eight hours on a drying Jerez track - 1min24.777.

While Rosberg was having lunch in the pits Sauber's Felipe Nasr went faster still with a time of 1min24,052; Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen was a close second with 1min24,074 in his test-session debut.

Four-times F1 champion and Ferrari newcomer Sebastian Vettel topped the time sheets on Sunday and Monday.

McLaren finally got some laps together after a slow start over the first couple of days with Fernando Alonso on 32 laps shortly after noon.

"Encouraging morning here at the test! 32 laps. We keep learning about the car!" the Spaniard tweeted.

But former champion Red Bull had some problems and was reportedly changing the engine after Daniel Ricciardo managed only five laps.

Eight teams are at the first of three rounds of pre-season action. Not present in Jerez are Force India, which aims to start its testing mid-February in Barcelona. The season will start in Australia on March 15.

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