Driver: Valtteri Bottas
Chassis / engine: FW34-03 / RS27- 5253/3
Location: Jerez de la Frontera 4.428km
Objectives: Aero evaluations and tyre testing
Weather: Dry and sunny all day
Maximum air & track temps: 15ºC / 30ºC

Day three of the Williams F1 teams Jerez test would see Valtteri Bottas take on his new role as full time driver for the team. Valtteri would complete the final two days of the teams test. His morning would see him focus on aerodynamic evaluation runs with his first four times out on the track were very short single lap runs. His lap time in the fourth was a 1m:22.888. After a short break Valtteri would complete three loner runs each around seven laps. His lap times would vary from 1m:21s through to 1m:24s. At around midday Valtteri would commence another run that would see him set his quickest time with a 1m:21.610. Fastest at this time was Massa with a 1m:17.879, running on the soft tyres.

Valtteri would pit having completed forty nine laps. His time of 1m:21.610 would see him ninth. The team had also been testing different exhaust systems in the morning as the team stopped for lunch with Valtteri completing fifty eight laps. The team would continue in the afternoon with further aerodynamic work and tyre evaluations. It would not be until nearly three before Valtteri would return to the track.

He would complete nine laps with times ranging from 1 m:21.968 to a 1m:24.525. Valtteri would remain in his garage for around thirty minutes prior to returning to the track. Valtteri would run on the medium tyres for his next run and would set his quickest time with a 1m:21.575. Just before for Valtteri would return for another run with times in the 1m:25s but he would complete just two timed laps. Valtteri had completed seventy eight laps. After making adjustments Valtteri would complete another two timed laps, with times in the 1m:25s. Another series of short runs would see Valtteri complete eighty six laps.

Mike Coughlan, Technical Director: We’ve had a productive day today with Valtteri completing a busy test programme without issue. We did a number of higher fuel runs as Valtteri clocked up 86 laps on his first outing as an official race driver for the team. The Jerez circuit is quite aggressive on tyres and we have already gained a lot of data over the last two days, so we decided to switch our focus. Aside from some core mechanical work in preparation for the FW35, we focussed on further aero evaluations throughout the day and gathered all the data we required.

Valtteri Bottas: It was my first day as an official race driver today and it’s been a long wait. Since the announcement last year I’ve been looking forward to this day and it’s great to finally get the season underway. Everything went as planned and we completed a lot of laps doing both aero and tyre work to gather some good data. It was a great start to 2013 for me.

The Williams F1 Team will be back on track tomorrow, Friday 8 February, with Valtteri Bottas continuing in the FW34 for the final day of the test.

DRIVER      	TEAM 	         TIME      BEST / TOTAL 
						     LAPS
1 F Massa 	Ferrari 	 1:17.879  26 / 85
2 N Rosberg 	Mercedes 	 1:18.766  88 / 148
3 S Vettel 	Red Bull Racing  1:19.052  69 / 102
4 K Raikkonen 	Lotus F1 Team 	 1:19.200  34 / 40
5 J E Vergne 	Toro Rosso 	 1:19.247  70 / 85
6 J Rossiter 	Force India 	 1:19.303  31 / 42
7 J Button 	McLaren Mercedes 1:19.603  23 / 83
8 E Gutierrez 	Sauber F1 Team 	 1:19.934  103 / 110
9 M Chilton 	Marussia 	 1:21.269  74 / 78
10 V Bottas 	Williams F1 Team 1:21.575  71 /86
11 C Pic 	Caterham F1 Team 1:22.352  45 / 57
12 P Di Resta 	Force India 	 1:23.729  3 / 7