Barcelona day 4: Webber goes quickest

Few drivers ventured onto the track this morning, with most completing just an installation lap before returning to the pits and waiting for the weather to improve. More drivers took to the track in the afternoon, when the rain eased slightly, with most teams focussing on race simulation or wet weather tyre testing.

BAR-Honda had another mixed day, with both drivers attempting race simulation runs. Jacques Villeneuve suffered a hydraulic failure on his car, which limited his running for the day. By contrast, Jenson Button completed 76 laps, and set the second fastest time of the test, just 0.059s behind Webber.

"We couldn't do many laps because of the weather, but we were very happy with what we achieved in the afternoon," said Button. "The driveability of the car in the wet is very good and I had no reliability problems. This morning I didn't think I'd ever be able to drive, so considering that we had a very good day. The car in race trim is very good. The only thing we're missing is a race simulation in the dry, so hopefully we'll be able to do that at Imola next week."

Giancarlo Fisichella set the third quickest time for Jordan, but team-mate Ralph Firman only completed 10 laps. This was because Bridgestone had only brought a limited number of wet-weather tyres to the test, and the team opted to wait until tomorrow, when conditions are scheduled to improve.

Cristiano da Matta suffered the worst in the weather. The Brazilian crashed heavily on his installation lap this morning, destroying the front-end of the car after embedding it heavily into a tyre barrier. Toyota may now be forced to skip the upcoming Jerez test as they are short of parts for the TF103.

Mark Webber Jaguar M 1m27.463s 64
Jenson Button BAR-Honda B 1m27.522s 76
Giancarlo Fisichella Jordan-Ford B 1m28.706s 75
Jacques Villeneuve BAR-Honda B 1m29.328s 21
Fernando Alonso Renault M 1m29.637s 35
Antonio Pizzonia Jaguar M 1m29.998s 48
Juan Pablo Montoya Williams-BMW M 1m30.743s 33
Ralf Schumacher Williams-BMW M 1m31.444s 29
Olivier Panis Toyota M 1m31.676s 26*
Allan McNish Renault M 1m43.580s 4*
Ralph Firman Jordan-Ford B 2m04.548s 10
Cristiano da Matta Toyota M no time 1

B = Bridgestone
M = Michelin
* denotes 2002 car