Ricard 4: Storms stop test

The circuit remained open until 16.00 this afternoon, but McLaren and Toyota abandoned their programmes and packed up at lunchtime. Williams, BAR and Renault hung on in vein until it was decided conditions would not improve. By early this afternoon the track was so undriveable that Juan Pablo Montoya had taken to practicing his golf putting in the long corridors of the Paul Ricard building!

"It's just too dangerous," said BAR-Honda's Takuma Sato. "It was so windy. It was very scary driving on the back straight."

The weather was a particular disappointment to Olivier Panis. The Frenchman did venture onto the track with a revised Toyota TF104 that featured new front and rear wings and a new undertray.

"It was meant to be an aero parts test," he said. "But the wind gusting up to 65 knots at times it was just too dangerous to continue. Yesterday was more useful to be honest. Today was just meaningless really."

Renault drivers Fernando Alonso and Franck Montagny and McLaren testers Alex Wurz and Pedro de la Rosa did not venture out. The Williams team meanwhile will remain at Ricard for promotional activities until Sunday.

Formula 1 testing will resume at Mugello the week after the San Marino GP.

Antonio Pizzonia Williams-BMW M 1m21.358s 9
Ryan Briscoe Toyota M 1m27.863s 7
Takuma Sato BAR-Honda M no time
Juan Pablo Montoya Williams-BMW no time
Olivier Panis Toyota M no time