Mercedes led the way for the second consecutive day in Formula 1 testing in Bahrain, as Nico Rosberg set the fastest time of the week while rival Red Bull continued its miserable pre-season.

The three-time grand prix winner became the only driver to break into the 1m33s with a blistering set of short runs on Pirelli’s soft tyre in the morning before completing a race run of more than 50 laps in the afternoon.

Meanwhile, Red Bull managed just 15 laps with Daniel Ricciardo as the team encountered yet more problems with its troublesome new car.

The team parked the RB10 early and spent much of the afternoon working furiously on the car in the garage.

The other Renault-engined teams also endured a difficult day.

Jean-Eric Vergne completed just 19 laps in the Toro Rosso, while Pastor Maldonado suffered another glut of problems with the Lotus E22, though he did manage 59 laps between issues and the fastest time by a Renault-powered car so far.

Caterham managed nearly 100 laps with Marcus Ericsson yesterday, but an electrical issue restricted the Swede to just four today.

Team-mate Kamui Kobayashi took the repaired car out and managed 17 laps in the final hour.

Jenson Button’s McLaren-Mercedes went second fastest for the second consecutive day, racking up 66 laps as the Woking squad continued its solid showing in Bahrain.

Of the other Mercedes-engined teams, new Williams signing Felipe Nasr managed nearly 90 laps and went fourth fastest on his F1 driving debut, while Force India’s Sergio Perez was sixth quickest on his first day in the VJM07, but had his running curtailed by a gearbox issue after just 19 laps.

Kimi Raikkonen bounced back from a telemetry issue yesterday to log 82 laps for Ferrari and post the third quickest time on Pirelli’s soft tyre.

He got within two tenths of Fernando Alonso’s best lap on day two, but brought the test to an early halt when he crashed his Ferrari at Turn 4.

Adrian Sutil only managed seven laps after Sauber found a problem with its chassis in the morning, while Marussia encountered engine and fuel problems that restricted Jules Bianchi to just five circuits.

Pos Driver              Team                    Time       Gap     Laps
 1. Nico Rosberg        Mercedes                1m33.283s           89
 2. Jenson Button       McLaren-Mercedes        1m34.957s  +1.674s  66
 3. Kimi Raikkonen      Ferrari                 1m36.718s  +3.435s  82
 4. Felipe Nasr         Williams-Mercedes       1m37.569s  +4.286s  87
 5. Pastor Maldonado    Lotus-Renault           1m38.707s  +5.424s  59
 6. Sergio Perez        Force India-Mercedes    1m39.258s  +5.975s  19
 7. Daniel Ricciardo    Red Bull-Renault        1m39.837s  +6.554s  15
 8. Jean-Eric Vergne    Toro Rosso-Renault      1m40.472s  +7.189s  19
 9. Kamui Kobayashi     Caterham-Renault        1m43.027s  +9.744s  17
10. Marcus Ericsson     Caterham-Renault        1m45.094s  +11.811s  4
11. Jules Bianchi       Marussia-Ferrari        no time              5
12. Adrian Sutil        Sauber-Ferrari          no time              5