Toyota Pair Shine at Paul Ricard

Panis, who was concentrating on damper work and suspension set-up ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix, outpaced fellow Toyota test driver Zonta by just more than two tenths of a second.

Zonta's focus for the day was on Michelin tyre work for Monaco, but the abrasive track surface at Paul Ricard was making life difficult for the Brazilian as longer runs were proving too much for the type of tyres required at Monte Carlo.

Spanish Grand Prix winner Kimi Raikkonen was third quickest, after also focusing on tyres, while teammate Juan Pablo Montoya lost quite a bit of time with a mechanical problem after stopping out on the track at 11.25am.

Raikkonen, using the latest spec of the Mercedes engine, was hindered by a problem with his power unit, completing just 75 laps.

Montoya, with the old spec engine, also suffered a problem with it as the team use up old engines in testing to check their reliability long-term.

BAR opted to skip the day's action because they did not want to waste one of their valuable 30 days of testing for pre-Monaco work, with the team still intending to stick to the limit despite their two-race ban costing them track time at Grand Prix weekends.

Jenson Button and Takuma Sato will return to action on Friday, when the track configuration is changed to simulate the long straights and corners that teams will experience at the Canadian Grand Prix.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver        Team-Engine         Tyres  Time     Laps
 1.  Panis         Toyota               (M)  1:04.877  112
 2.  Zonta         Toyota               (M)  1:05.115  120
 3.  Raikkonen     McLaren-Mercedes     (M)  1:05.130   75
 4.  Kovalainen    Renault              (M)  1:05.143  196
 5.  Montagny      Renault              (M)  1:05.336  132
 6.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Cosworth    (M)  1:05.360  155
 7.  Montoya       McLaren-Mercedes     (M)  1:05.441   53
 8.  Liuzzi        Red Bull-Cosworth    (M)  1:06.270   95
 9.  Villeneuve    Sauber-Petronas      (M)  1:06.644  114

All Timing Unofficial