Jerez 4: Ferrari reigns in wet
Dismal weather ruined today's (Friday) testing at Jerez, but if there was a podium for testing Ferrari would still have had a clean sweep. Neither Jordan nor BAR had an answer for Maranello's test drivers
Vast amounts of water fell to earth during the night, with hardly a let-up until mid-afternoon today. With a lack of tyres for monsoon conditions, most of the day's activity was lost until the final couple of hours (under bright sunshine!) on a
damp circuit.
Whilst Luca Badoer managed to go quickest and record the most laps, Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa only did three laps as the weather ruined his planned dry-circuit programme. But nobody could test what they had wanted to in any case.
With Williams gone, it was up to BAR and Jordan to share the track with Ferrari. Everyone found the day frustrating, particularly Ralph Firman on his return to the Jordan cockpit. The Briton was slowest of all today.
"The car was quite good in the rain, and it was still nice to be back in the car," said Firman. "I haven't been to this track since 1995 when I had my prize drive for my McLaren Autosport BRDC Driver of the Year Award."
Nick Heidfeld was fastest non-Ferrari today, but doesn't feel that he learnt much: "Today was a waste of time. We couldn't do any of our programme, but the car was good in the wet."
The BAR drivers swapped cars again, so that Jenson Button took over the "concept car" and Takuma was back in the 2003 model. On a particularly inconclusive day, Sato was the quicker of the two.
Teams will be back at Jerez on Monday for further testing.
Luca Badoer (Ferrari) 1m25.801s 73
Felipe Massa (Ferrari) 1m26.552s 3
Luciano Burti (Ferrari) 1m27.200 27
Nick Heidfeld (Jordan-Ford) 1m27.891s 51
Takuma Sato (BAR-Honda) 1m28.082s 55
Jenson Button (BAR-Honda) 1m28.611s 49
Ralph Firman (Jordan-Ford) 1m28.841s 45
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