Despite the fact that the Haas only completed one installation lap, today was the busiest day of testing thus far, as the remaining ten drivers completed 1234 laps between them.

Not only did we have race simulations, we even got a little bit of racing. Indeed, there was a little bit of niggle as drivers sought to stamp their authority on rivals, with Kevin Magnussen putting a nice one over on Sergio Perez and Sebastian Vettel taking no nonsense from Nico Rosberg in entirely separate incidents.

While some drivers looked for pace, with Melbourne looming ever closer, others looked to race distances. Indeed, at one point this afternoon there were seven drivers either focussing on long runs or full race simulations, consequently with seven drivers completing over 100 laps, and, of course, the car-sharing Mercedes duo, the final tally of 1234 wasn't surprising.

While others looked at race sims, Bottas opted for qualifying runs - not that the final qualifying format is decided yet - the Finn putting in his quickest time on the supersofts having also shown strong pace on the softs.

Once again, Mercedes split driver duties, Hamilton running this morning and Rosberg taking over in the afternoon. Though the German didn't appear until fifteen minutes into the afternoon session, he soon got stuck into his race simulation. However, like his teammate, his pit stops were not without problems.

It was a good day for Renault with Kevin Magnussen not only putting the RS16 third on the timesheets but completing 126 laps in the process. Furthermore, the Dane showed that he's lost none of his race craft, making a bold move on a frustrating Sergio Perez when he felt the Mexican was holding him up.

Sebastian Vettel looked to reliability, never straying from the medium rubber as he added an impressive 151 laps to the SF16-H's tally.

Another 121 laps for McLaren, where Jenson Button was on duty, though the day wasn't without its issues, a suspension problem costing the Briton time either side of the lunch break.

Having spent much of the morning focussing on practice pit stops, Ricciardo got down to longer runs in the afternoon, the Australian completing 135 laps in total.

It was another very impressive performance from Toro Rosso, where Carlos Sainz was on duty. The Spaniard completed 166 laps on his way to posting the seventh best time of the day, as memories of the fact that this team didn't even have an engine this time a couple of months ago recede with every trip across the start/finish line.

A good day for Force India also, where Sergio Perez completed 128 laps without any significant issues.

Pascal Wehrlein was on duty for Manor as the Banbury outfit slowly, but surely, deals with every little niggle that appears, the team clearly benefitting from the experience of its back room staff.

Following yesterday's impressive performance, it was altogether a more trying day for Sauber, where Marcus Ericsson lost almost all the morning with a technical issue then suffered a mystery incident in the afternoon which brought about the day's only red flag.

Whatever the cause of the incident - a gust of wind perhaps - the Swede ended up in the kitty litter at T4 minus his right-rear wheel.

However, sterling work by his crew not only saw him back on track with five minutes remaining, the youngster was able to improve his time, if not his position.

Then there was Haas.

The American team, which hit the ground running last week, now looked totally out of its depth, and no doubt some old hands in the paddock will have allowed themselves a wry smile.

Losing most of yesterday with a fuel system issue, today it was a turbocharger problem that left Esteban Gutierrez side-lined for virtually the whole day. Following a long night last night, the Haas crew can expect to be burning the midnight oil again tonight.

A busy day, and as some drivers allowed their racing instincts to get the better of them, one which whetted the appetite.

"It's been another good day," said Bottas. "That's it for me now for testing before we go to Melbourne. I'm feeling prepared and good in the car. I'm glad we have made progress during testing and I'm sure we will do even more before Melbourne. That's it now for driving from my side. There's more to follow in the next two days as we will discover more with Felipe.

"Thanks to everyone in the team for all their hard work over the last two tests and thanks also to Mercedes HPP.

"It's been another good day," agreed Chief Test & Support Engineer, Rod Nelson. "It was the last time Valtteri was due to be in the car before he gets in for the race weekend in Melbourne and so it's important that we covered a lot of the work we have had to do this week - and so far so good.

"We have done a reasonable number of laps and we did all the tests we had planned for today, so overall it's been very successful. He is very comfortable in the car and his race engineers are tuning it around his requirements, so we are feeling positive."

At Mercedes, Hamilton emerged for his first run at 09:05, completing 73 laps before the hour-long lunch break at 13:00. Rosberg completed a further 91 laps in the afternoon. The day's programme focused on low fuel runs in the morning and a race simulation in the afternoon.

"Reliability is our strength at the moment," said Hamilton. "The strength within the team has grown even further. It's really motivating for the season. The car was good, quite strong, we did some lower fuel running today but some work needs to be done balance wise. Getting onto the softer tyre was a good experience but we've got some work to do still."

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