Barcelona day 4: Ralf in the rain

With the maximum temperature just 17 degrees, constant rain fell at the Spanish track all morning, with only Williams tester Marc Gene completing any real running. The rain finally stopped around lunchtime but began again around 4pm, just as a dry-line was beginning to emerge on the track.

Despite his planned test programme being curtailed due to the rain, Schumacher was still happy, having sampled aerodynamic and mechanical modifications to the FW25 yesterday. "We tested some new aerodynamic parts yesterday," he told autosport.com "We had new mechanical bits as well which were very good. The car I drove yesterday is the car we're taking to Brazil so let's see what we can do."

David Coulthard was second quickest for McLaren with Olivier Panis, who did lots of long runs to work on the car's handling, third. Marc Gene, who completed a massive 108 laps, set the fourth best time.

Given the weather, Ferrari decided that it was pointless to continue development work on the new F2003-GA, so Michael Schumacher reverted to an F2002 to work on electronics testing. The team has sent its new car back to the Fiorano test track, where Schumacher will drive it tomorrow.

Ralf Schumacher Williams-BMW M 1m17.591s 53
David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes M 1m18.258s 61
Olivier Panis Toyota M 1m18.687s 63
Marc Gene Williams-BMW M 1m18.728s 108
Michael Schumacher Ferrari* B 1m19.051s 40
Jacques Villeneuve BAR-Honda B 1m19.793s 65
Pedro de la Rosa McLaren-Mercedes M 1m20.417s 75
Nick Heidfeld Sauber-Petronas B 1m20.818s 36

B = Bridgestone
M = Michelin
* denotes 2002 car

Ricardo Zonta completed a three-day test for Toyota at Paul Ricard today. Driving the TF102B, the Brazilian completed 274 laps of the French circuit, working mainly on Michelin tyre evaluation.