Driver: Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa
Chassis / Engine: FW36-02 / PU106A Hybrid
Location: Bahrain International Circuit 5.412km
Objectives: Pitstop practice and race starts
Weather: Hot and Sunny Maximum air & track temps: 27ºC / 33ºC

Day three of the Williams F1 teams Bahrain test would see both Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas run today. With the start of the session it would be Valtteri first out while the team had revealed that they would be in for some pit stop practice. Valtteri would pit after his installation lap returning shortly after for a series of laps but without setting a time with regular visits to his pit. It was at this time that the pit stop practice got underway. Valtteri would be forced to pit as their was a red flag which saw proceedings stop for thirty minutes. with an hour and a half of the session completed Valtteri had yet to set a time while the quickest time was from Hamilton with a 1m:35.812. The Williams team would continue their pit stop practice having completed over twenty laps.

Valtteri would return to the track. He had commented on the previous days testing by saying: "We had some wiring loom problems, stuff like that, not maybe so big but these days the system is so complicated. Everyone in the team is learning all the time. That’s what testing is for. Hopefully we can see all the potential problems here rather than in Melbourne.

"I'm very happy with the work the team did to solve all the problems overnight. It was the first proper day for us without any problems – a clean day. Hopefully we can have these kinds of days a lot more now."

He would again pit as Hamilton improved the quickest time with a 1m:35.505 followed shortly after with a 1m:34.813. With nearly three hours completed Valtteri had completed thirty three laps despite not having set a time. At the front Hamilton continued to push setting a 1m:34.263 to improve the quickest time. The team would stop for lunch after four hours of the session. Felipe would take over for the afternoon running and his running would see him fifth early on with a 1m:39.528. Prior to going out Felipe had said: "For the moment the car is similar to Jerez. Only some little changes. We should have some new parts for next week. I think at the end of next week the car will be more or less how it's going to be in Australia. The mileage is very important for all of us, because there are so few days for testing."

Felipe would also continue the teams pit stop practice but he would stop with thirty minutes of the session remaining. He would improve with a 1m:38.618. It would not be until near the end of the day that Felipe would set his quickest time with a 1m:37.066 to be third. This was 1.6 seconds faster than his previous best showing that the team has yet to push the car to its limits. At the end of the day the Williams team would copmplete forty three pits stops with both Valtteri and Felipe. Felipe would finish third after the day with a time of 1m:37.066, having completed sixty laps, while Valtteri would not set a time in his morning running having completed fifty five laps.

Rod Nelson, Chief Test & Support Engineer: The main target for today was to practice pitstops with the race team. We ended up doing 43 live pitstops and went through our race start procedures. We then did some chassis work at the end of the day with Felipe to try and make up for some of the time he lost on day one. We are happy with how it has gone today. The car is proving to be solid and we are getting a good handle on things including starts performance and all the practical homework we need to do before we go racing in Melbourne. Overall, we are making good progress.

Felipe Massa: It was a very busy afternoon. It was a shame we couldn't drive on the first day as that would have helped us get even further along today but the most important thing was that we found and solved the problem. The car then did 116 laps yesterday, and we did 115 laps today combined so that is very positive. We did a lot of pitstop practice, which was the main goal today, and I saw a big improvement from the start of the day to the end which is important for the team to be ready and prepared for the first race. I think we are going in a good direction. The car is running well and I am happy. There is still a lot to do and to understand about the car, and improvements to the set-up that we haven’t had time to do yet, but it's very positive so far.

Valtteri Bottas: We had a very good morning today focusing only on pitstops and race starts. We again ran the programme without any problems and we were improving the pitstops and starts throughout. It was good to get more mileage on the car even though I didn't do a timed lap myself. It is very important work for the races as this is one area we need to improve.

Driver 		Team 			Best Time Best / 
						  Total Laps
1  L Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas	1:34.263  24 / 67
2  J Button	Sahara Force India	1:34.976  34 / 103
3  F Massa	Williams		1:37.066  53 / 60
4  E Gutierrez	Sauber F1 Team		1:37.180  36 / 96
5  S Perez	Sahara Force India	1:37.367  43 / 57
6  K Raikkonen	Scuderia Ferrari	1:37.467  34 / 44
7  D Kvyat	Toro Rosso		1:38.974  54 / 57
8  P Maldonado	Lotus			1:39.642  13 / 26
9  D Ricciardo	Infiniti Red Bull	1:40.781  22 / 28
10 C Ericsson	Caterham F1 Team	1:42.130  92 / 98
11 M Chilton	Marussia		1:46.672  3 / 4
12 V Bottas	Williams		No Time   0 / 55