Perez shows Sauber potential

Sergio Perez gave Sauber plenty to smile about over lunch on Thursday by setting the fastest time on the third morning of testing at Barcelona.

Late on Tuesday Perez lit up the timing screens with an unprecedented lap, but it turned out he had skipped the final chicane in order to avoid traffic. However, the lap on Thursday morning was genuine and set over a single flying lap, most likely on low fuel. The time was the best of the week, pipping the one set by Sebastian Vettel in the Red Bull on a seven lap run on Wednesday.

The track temperature certainly played its part, with the surface of the circuit peaking over 30C before lunch. It was the first day of the test so far with completely blue skies, something McLaren

Sauber sponsor Slim tops world rich list

Business magazine Forbes has named Sauber sponsor Carlos Slim the richest man on earth. 71-year-old Slim, the Mexican telecoms magnate who is backing the Swiss team and its rookie Sergio Perez this year through his company Telmex and its subsidiaries, grew his fortune over the past year by more than $20 billion to $74bn, the magazine said.

F1's chief executive and 'supremo' Bernie Ecclestone is 254th on the world rich list with $4.2bn, and Virgin figurehead Sir Richard Branson is reportedly equally rich.

Slightly wealthier is Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso owner Dietrich Mateschitz with $5 billion, while Force India's Vijay Mallya is ranked 879th on the billionaire's list with $1.4bn.