Ferrari and Toyota end Paul Ricard test

The two Bridgestone-shod teams enjoyed warm temperatures with no rainfall, as both outfits concentrated on tyre development for the Japanese company, running on the 3E-SC version of the French track.

Ralf Schumacher, who ran the least number of laps - 101 in total, also had a chance to test the TF106/07B for the first time, and the German was cautious in delivering his verdict at the end of the day.

"Today we tried different tyre specifications and set-ups for the coming races," Ralf said. "I worked with the new car and everything is going as expected, but we had some delays while work was being done on the car and therefore I cannot say a whole lot about it yet.

"In general, we have improved on the tyre warm-up issue and tried various different compounds from Bridgestone.

"Although the coming races will be challenging, because we are still developing the car and our strategy, I think the team is doing a good job and moving in the right direction."

Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher, who ran a total of 156 laps - the most of the day - was 0.247 seconds slower than brother Ralf's fastest time. The older German brother also concentrated on Bridgestone's tyre development programme.

Less than a tenth of a second behind the former world champion was Toyota test driver Ricardo Zonta, who completed a total of 153 laps with the fastest being 59.163 seconds.

"We spent the last three days on a version of the circuit that was new for us," the Brazilian said at the end of the day. "We did a lot of Bridgestone tyre work as well as set-up testing for Nurburgring. It went pretty well, and I put in over 300 laps over the three days.

"Today we finished the programme early, getting through the test after pushing hard the whole day. I think the team can be satisfied with the work we got through during this test."

Today's times:

Pos  Driver        Team         Time    Laps
 1.  R.Schumacher  Toyota  (B)  58.840   101
 2.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari (B)  59.087   156
 3.  Zonta         Toyota  (B)  59.163   153