Kovalainen tops times on final day

The final day of testing at the Le Castellet circuit, in the South of France, began in damp conditions due to overnight rain and light morning drizzle.

By noon the racing line had dried up, but low temperatures and windy conditions meant lap times were significantly slower than previous days.

Pacesetter Kovalainen was one of the drivers to run the fewest laps today, with a total of 92 laps and a fastest time of 1:05.287. In contrast, BMW's Nick Heidfeld ran a total of 192 laps, setting the third fastest time of the day - 1:05.626.

Heidfeld concentrated on tyre testing - in the morning running on intermediate Michelins, and in the afternoon concentrating on long runs on the tyre compound already selected yesterday, which the team will use in Imola next month, for the San Marino Grand Prix.

McLaren's Pedro de la Rosa, who was second fastest of the day, continued with long-distance runs, proving again the reliability of the Mercedes V8 engine, as the Spaniard ran a total of 98 laps with a fresh engine unit.

Teammate Gary Paffett, in the mean time, continued with tyre testing, running a total of 61 laps and a best time of 1:05.709.

Toyota's veteran test driver Olivier Panis joined regular tester Ricardo Zonta, the Frenchman carrying out intermediate tyre comparisons and putting in long runs on the tyres selected yesterday for the Australian Grand Prix. Zonta too continued with tyre testing today.

Zonta and Panis ran 133 and 109 laps respectively, with the Brazilian setting the faster time, of 1:06.949. Panis, in turn, had a best lap time of 1:07.851.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver       Team                   Time      Laps
 1.  Kovalainen   Renault           (M)  1:05.287    92
 2.  De la Rosa   McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:05.381    98
 3.  Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber        (M)  1:05.626   192
 4.  Paffett      McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:05.709    61
 5.  Zonta        Toyota            (B)  1:06.949   133
 6.  Panis        Toyota            (B)  1:07.851   109