Rain proves a real test
Rain wrecked the final day of this week's Formula One test at the Paul Ricard circuit in France, underlined by the fact 13 seconds separated the 11 drivers on track.
The 10 teams spent the first two days of the three-day programme optimising set-up in preparation for next weekend's Monaco Grand Prix.
To conclude the test, the teams used a different configuration of the track to replicate aspects of the Gilles Villeneuve circuit in Montreal for next month's race in Canada.
Unfortunately, the weather intervened, to such an extent many of the teams were at one stage forced to use the extreme wet tyres.
Toyota's Jarno Trulli managed just 26 laps, but set the best time on the 5.255km circuit in one minute 31.360 seconds.
Explaining the situation, Trulli said: "With the first two days of this week's test devoted to Monaco preparations, we had scheduled an intensive programme (for Friday).
"Montreal is a very different type of circuit and we wanted to try out different aerodynamic and mechanical solutions.
"You run less downforce in Montreal compared to Monaco, so the car set-up is very different and we had planned a lot of work on this.
"So it was frustrating the rain came early in the day and meant we could not collect any dry data."
After 191 laps on the shorter version of the circuit on Thursday, Nelson Piquet on Friday managed 60 laps in his Renault and was second quickest, just over a quarter of a second down on Trulli.
