“We initially fitted wet tyres to do a baseline run in the highest downforce specification we would run in Canada, but the rain got worse. The next time we went out, just before lunch, we ran the extreme wets but Jarno reported too much surface water.
“Then, in the small time we got at the very end of the day, we ran a couple of systems checks. It was a frustrating end to the test, but at least we collected a lot of data to prepare for Monaco over the first two days.”
The under-fire
Nelsinho Piquet wound up second-fastest in the
Renault, just under three tenths shy of Trulli's best effort after completing 60 laps, the most of any driver at the Le Castellet circuit on the day. The Brazilian rookie acknowledged that it had been far from the easiest of days.
“Quite a frustrating day really,” the 22-year-old summarised, “but there was no point in doing lots of miles in the wet conditions. Fortunately we did a lot of laps yesterday and got most of our work done, because we knew it was likely to be wet today. [It was] a good week overall, and I think we are well-prepared for Monaco next week.”
“There was not much to be learnt today because of the poor weather,” agreed the
Régie's chief test engineer Christian Silk, “but Nelson managed a couple of runs in the dry this morning. He was pretty happy with the car on the longer circuit and everything was working well.
“For a lot of the day it was too wet to be safe to run, but when it was safe enough we got out and did some basic set-up work, and gave Nelson some more wet weather experience.”
Pedro de la Rosa ended the day third-quickest for McLaren-Mercedes, with
Scuderia Toro Rosso's
Sebastian Vettel three tenths further behind in fourth, after getting his first taste of the small Faenza-based squad's new STR3 in low downforce-spec. The plan had been for team-mate Sébastien Bourdais to take over in the afternoon, but then the rain arrived…
