Germany’s Nico Hulkenberg has handed Force India a confidence boost, clocking the fastest time in Formula One pre-season testing after an exhausting day’s drive.

Hulkenberg timed 1min 22.608sec from a total of 112 laps on Wednesday, with Sauber’s Sergio Perez in second spot and world champion Sebastien Vettel, who had been quickest in the morning, finishing third fastest.

Australian Daniel Ricciardo placed fifth, timing 1min23.639sec from 49 laps.

“We started the day with some aero work, trying some constant speed runs and collecting more data,” said Hulkenberg.

“Then, the rest of the day was spent working on the balance of the car and trying out all four tyre compounds. I did some short runs, long runs and just got a feel for the tyre characteristics and how the car reacts to them.

“Once again the car has been very driveable all day and our baseline set-up has proved to be a good starting point for running all the different compounds.”

Vettel’s progress was hampered by the cold weather, which meant some equipment froze in the morning before the action got under way.

“I’m happy that we got a lot of laps done. Unfortunately, we had a little bit of a problem, it was small, but with testing you stop whenever there’s an issue, take a look and see what’s what and that always takes up a bit of time,” said Vettel.

“But nevertheless, in the afternoon I was quite happy. We got a lot of laps done, more than 100, so we got through most of the program.

“I think we are on the right road with the car. The first impressions at the last test were fine. The car reacted the way we expected. I keep talking about the loss of downforce compared to last year, as we don’t have the tools we had, but this is the same for everyone, not just us.”

Lotus did not test after pulling out on Tuesday due to a chassis problem.

Testing continues until Friday and there will be a final series of testing back in Barcelona on March 1-4, before the teams travel to Australia for the opening race of the season in Melbourne on March 18.