Toyota's promising form ruined by rain

Team-mate Cristiano da Matta was also badly hit by the conditions. The Brazilian was caught out on slicks by the heavy rainstorm, and eventually aborted his lap after a spin and several sideways moments.

"We were not very lucky this afternoon with the wet weather, but there is absolutely nothing we can do about that," said Panis, who could only set the 17th fastest time. "It was too wet to set any sort of decent time, so I just concentrated on getting the car back to Parc Ferme safely.

"I want to remain optimistic though. We were very competitive this morning and I extremely happy with the job everybody did in practice to get us in P1. Hopefully we will be able to recreate that sort of speed in tomorrow's sessions."

Da Matta was the second driver to run after the rain started falling, and admitted that he and the team gambled on his tyre choice. "We thought that we could get a time done in the dry conditions, so we opted for slick tyres for my run.

"The initial part of the track was actually quite dry but then I suddenly picked up a part of the track that was really wet and it was impossible to drive, so we decided it was safer to abort the lap."