Davidson tops wet final day at Barcelona

After the Toyota and McLaren teams decided to pack up early and leave the track, only Honda and Renault were left at the Spanish circuit.

Honda's test driver Anthony Davidson was the quickest on the three drivers on track at the wheel of the 007 chassis with a V10 engine. He was also the busiest man with 48 laps covered.

Teammate Jenson Button drove the hybrid car fitted with the V8 engine and finished over five seconds behind after only 23 laps.

Italian Giancarlo Fisichella returned to work following the end of the season, but had an unproductive day at the wheel of the R25 with the restricted V10 engine.

Nonetheless, he managed 44 laps as he tried to work on the car set-up to improve and adapt its handling in the new V8 power levels, with two of the 10 cylinders of his engine not working.

"It was just a bit too wet," Fisichella told autosport.com. "I felt loss of potential in the V8, and the set-up was not that great, but it was important to feel the difference.

"I did feel the loss of power and next time I drive it will be the new car in January so I know more or less what to expect. Hopefully it will be better than this."

Test driver Franck Montagny did not drive today owing to the bad weather conditions that would have prevented him from doing making productive progress.

"It was impossible to learn anything today because of the very bad and cold conditions," said Renault's chief test engineer Christian Silk. "Anyway we ran as we could because we wanted Giancarlo to acclimatize himself to the car and especially to the new power output.

"It helped him to have feelings of the engine changes and he got some understanding of the different chassis set-ups."

Today's times:

Pos  Driver        Team                Tyres  Time     Laps
 1.  Davidson      Honda                (M)  1:25.542   48
 2.  Button        Honda                (M)  1:30.807   23
 3.  Fisichella    Renault              (M)  1:30.854   44

 All Timing Unofficial