Sebastian Vettel drove the car in which he will try to defend his Formula One world championship for the first time on Thursday. At the first pre-season test of the season, taking place at Spain's Jerez racetrack, Vettel clocked the third-fastest time of the day in his new Red Bull race car, the RB8.

Vettel won the 2010 and 2011 F1 world drivers' championships behind the wheel of the RB8's predecessors.

"It's been two months since we were in the car, so it does take a couple of laps to get back in the rhythm, but the car feels fine and as we expected," Vettel told reporters at the track. "There's quite a loss of grip due to the regulation changes, but you get used to it quickly and then start to explore how the new car feels. So far we can be happy, we had a couple of issues, but that's normal when the car is new."

Vettel's countryman Nico Rosberg set the fastest time of the day driving the same Mercedes GP car he used last season. Mercedes have not yet unveiled their 2012 challenger and are clocking some testing miles using their old car.

French driver Romain Grosjean, driving for Lotus Renault, set the fastest time of the day in a 2012-spec car, lapping almost a second quicker than third-placed Vettel.

Too early to tell

Thursday's action marked the third day of the Formula One pre-season; Vettel's teammate Mark Webber had driven the RB8 on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Lap times set in testing, especially at such an early stage in the pre-season, must be taken with a big pinch of salt. Many teams seek to keep their car's true pace under wraps until closer to the first race, often running with heavy fuel loads and sometimes intentionally withholding key parts they fear the competition might try to copy. The most important thing at this early stage is that the teams gauge their cars' reliability; on that front, Vettel chalked up a workmanlike tally of 96 laps.

Vettel, still just 24 years young, is seeking his third consecutive championship in 2012. Should he succeed, he would join Juan Manuel Fangio and seven-time German champion Michael Schumacher in one of Formula One's most elite clubs. His Red Bull car was penned by the most successful aerodynamicist in F1 history, paddock legend Adrian Newey.

Vettel is one of five Germans currently set to line up on the 2012 F1 grid. Rosberg and Schumacher will drive as Mercedes GP teammates for the third straight season, Timo Glock remains with the backmarker Marussia F1 team, while Nico Hülkenberg returns to the sport after a year's hiatus, replacing countryman Adrian Sutil at Sahara Force India.

After a string of pre-season tests in Spain, chosen because of the comparatively warm winter weather, the F1 field will take to the track in anger at the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on March 18.

msh/mz (AFP, AP, dpa)