Barca 4: Rubens fastest

Having been stuck in the garage until 11.00am because of an hydraulic leak, Barrichello found his running was interrupted by another fluid leak later in the afternoon. The minor dramas did not stop him outpacing Olivier Panis in the TF104B by six tenths of a second, though.

Toyota also endured a far from troublefree day. Panis maintained the speed advantage of the interim model over its 2005 challenger, but his day was marred by an engine problem on the older specification of power-unit.

Jarno Trulli, who brought out two red flags during the day, and Ralf Schumacher focused on set-up work after a troubled week of testing where the team found itself frustrated with the slippery surface.

Trulli expressed his frustration at the week's running - and said he was hoping for better fortunes at Valencia next week.

"It was a difficult day," said Trulli, who apart from his hydraulics dramas also had a spin in the afternoon. "We had so many little problems that we could not work on the set-up much and the circuit was really really bad. It was too slippery and we didn't have a reference point.

"Hopefully we are going to have a better test in Valencia."

Action will continue at Barcelona tomorrow with Panis conducting wet-weather tyre testing, prior to the launch of the new McLaren MP4-20 on Monday.



Rubens Barrichello (Ferrari), 1m16.131s, 87 laps
Olivier Panis (Toyota), 1m16.796s, 78 laps
Jarno Trulli (Toyota), 1m17.353s, 82 laps
Ralf Schumacher (Toyota), 1m17.490s, 84 laps