Barrichello's testing hampered by rain

Barrichello, who has struggled in the first two rounds of the season, spent most of the day acclimitising to the track, but heavy rain before noon brought the morning session to an early end.

Barrichello and test driver Anthony Davidson were sidelined for several hours, finally completing an hour of runs on extreme wet tyres before the circuit was closed.

Davidson, who continuted to work on chassis set-up, ran a total of 82 laps, with a fastest time of 1:15.937. Barrichello managed only 46 laps, with the fastest being 1:17.092.

"I had a few dry runs in the car this morning but was still learning the circuit by the time that it started raining," the Brazilian said.

"The end of the day was more positive, as I had a couple of runs right at the end on wet tyres to give me more of a feel for the car and set-up.

"This track has helped me test the new ideas that we have, which I found useful, and I will certainly be using these in Australia and hope to have a good weekend there."

Mark Ellis, Chief Engineer Vehicle Performance, said: The weather has not prevented us working through a comprehensive programme with the electronic systems and we have made good progress with both the control systems and the chassis set-up in dry and wet conditions.

"We did not have enough dry running to complete all our planned tyre tests, but we have some very positive results that will carry forward to the next tests before the start of the European races."

Shuhei Nakamoto, engineering director of Honda Racing Development added: "Due to the rain, we concentrated more on control systems improvements rather than the search for more power and higher revs this week.

"That has brought us some good results which will help us fix the most appropriate engine maps for Melbourne."