Vitaly Petrov insists he is getting a better understanding of the ne🌊w Pirelli tyres after a solid performance on the third day of F1 💝testing in Barcelona.

Overnight rain gave Petrov his ﷺfirst chance to sample Pirelli's intermediate tyre during the morning after a ☂series of long runs on track before he worked on set-up during the afternoon.

Having lost time earlier in the week to a KERS-related issue, the Russian was able to complete more than 90 laps with his qui🌱ck time🐓 during a short run towards the end of the day.

"We used the intermediates to begin with and it was one of our first opportunities to do a lot of laps with them," he said. "The only issue we had was warming them up because it was very cold early on. The plan was to d൩o a race distance in the morning and we managed quite a lot of long runs while the track was wet. Then, we put the slicks on just before lunch and started improving the set-up.

"We learned a lot of new things and I'm starting to understand the tyres mo💦re and how to get the most from thi▨s car."

Petrov's solid day on track came after he told Renault they could rely on him to perform this season in the absence of the injured Robert Kubica [See separate story ].

To view times from the third day of running in Barcelona, .