GP2 Champion Davide Valsecchi was back on top on Thursday although this time in a F1 car, setting the pace in the Young Driver test.
Climbing behind the wheel of the Lotus E20, which won last weekend's race at the Yas Marina circuit, the Italian clocked a 1:42.677.
Although quickest on the day, that put the 25-year-old second for the week as Kevin Magnussen's time in the McLaren from Tuesday, a 1:42.651, remained unbeaten.
Magnussen, though, had to settle for second on Thursday's timesheets as 20-year-old Dane was 0.150s down.
Third place went to potential 2013 Sauber driver Esteban Gutierrez while Robin Frijns, this year's Formula Renault 3.5 champion, was fourth for Red Bull. Earlier in the week he put the Sauber through its paces, finishing fourth as well as Tuesday.
Oliver Turvey, who was testing new parts for McLaren and at one stage had a strange sensor attached to the back of his MP4-27, was fifth ahead of Luiz Razia and Alexander Rossi.
Rossi was in action for Caterham, posting a best time of 1:46.485 in what he reckons is a vastly improved CT01.
"It's been a great day in the car and I want to thank the whole team for giving me the chance to drive in Abu Dhabi," said Rossi.
"I last drove this car in FP1 in Barcelona back in May and it's definitely come on a long way since then."
His day, though, was cut short when his Caterham was found to have an oil leak.
He added: "It's obviously not ideal that we had to end the session early, but when I boxed after my 14th run there was oil on the garage floor so the engineers had to call the session over.
"That meant I didn't have the chance to do any performance runs and I'm sure if I did my lap times would have been close to the race drivers, but issues like that are just one of those things."
Unofficial Times
1 Davide Valsecchi Lotus 1:42.677 86 Laps
2 Kevin Magnussen McLaren 1:42.827 51 Laps
3 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 1:43.093 80 Laps
4 Robin Frijns Red Bull 1:43.233 53 Laps
5 Oliver Turvey McLaren 1:43.604 44 Laps
6 Luiz Razia Toro Rosso 1:45.286 68 Laps
7 Alexander Rossi Caterham 1:46.485 85 Laps
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Day Three Of The Young Guns
