Although Speed, in particular, made early ground, both he and his Italian team-mate were out early on. For the second time this season, Speed was the victim of tyre failure, although this time the finger of blame could be pointed at debris on track following a lap one collision involving
Ralf Schumacher and Alex Wurz, and Liuzzi succumbed to hydraulic failure, adding to the team's checklist for Ricard.
Inevitably, after the Spanish Grand Prix, reliability was a key element of these past four days and the programme here in the South of France was not trouble free. However, all the data gathered means the team now has a better understanding of the problems it faces in this area and there is still a week to go before the Monaco GP, in which to make further progress on the reliability front.
"In terms of performance, we ran across the range of aero settings, from maximum downforce for Monaco on the first two days to minimum for Canada on the last two, and we hope to have a new aero package in time for the Canadian Grand Prix," chief engineer Laurent Mekies revealed, skirting around the fact that the test itself had not been entirely trouble-free, "Overall, it has been a productive four days, but we still have a lot of work to do to reach an acceptable level of reliability."
Sebastien Bourdais returned to the cockpit of a Toro Rosso entry during the test, reviving rumours that the Frenchman may find himself a part of the team next season.
Spyker F1 – Christijan Albers (#20), Adrian Sutil (#21):
Following on from its second consecutive double finish in Spain, Spyker goes to the fifth race of the year looking to build on momentum if not with hopes of closing the gap to those immediately ahead.
Both Adrian Sutil and Christijan Albers know the tricky Monaco track well, with the German holding the current F3 lap record and Albers having raced in two grands prix there. Importantly, the Dutchman has finished both races, emphasising the importance of not making mistakes - something his young team-mate has been quick to take on board.
