Webber Leads the Way in the Rain - Day Four

Australian Mark Webber posted the fastest time of the fourth day of testing at the Circuit de Catalunya, where the weather again hampered the teams' progress.

A heavy rain in the morning forced the teams to work hard in the afternoon to make up for the lost time, but the track continued to be very wet nonetheless. Webber posted his fastest time in the afternoon, as he continued to work with the new Cosworth-powered Jaguar R4.

The Australian driver outpaced Briton Jenson Button, who was the fastest of the Bridgestone runners with the first of the BAR-Hondas.

Button's teammate Jacques Villeneuve finished fourth quickest behind Jordan's Giancarlo Fisichella, who was the only driver from the Silverstone-based squad who had a productive day as Briton Ralph Firman did not set a competitive time after only 10 laps. The team decided that following his extensive wet weather testing yesterday and with drier conditions forecast for tomorrow, he should rest in preparation for a fifth day at the wheel.

Spaniard Fernando Alonso wound up fifth with the first of the Renault cars, while Scot Allan McNish was 10th in the second. Italian Jarno Trulli, who was scheduled to test the R23 with the revised aerodynamic package, again failed to complete any laps as the team did not want to risk damaging the new machine.

"Unfortunately, we had another cold and wet day which severely limited our programme," said Renault's Mike Gascoyne. "We ran with Fernando in the hybrid R23 conducting some wet tyre evaluation and general reliability running.

"It's a shame because we lost the last two days of testing as Jarno was unable to run the R23 with the new aerodynamic package. I hope we will be able to do some chassis evaluation next week at Silverstone, during our final test session before the beginning of the season."

The Williams team, who had topped the times on Wednesday, finished as seventh and eighth fastest with Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher. The German, who had topped the times yesterday, crashed out of the circuit in the afternoon, causing some damage to the front of the car.

Frenchman Oliver Panis and Brazilian Cristiano da Matta were again in action for the Toyota team. Panis got back behind the wheel of the old TF102B, while da Matta drove the new TF103 but failed to set a time after crashing during his installation lap.

"We have had a lot of rain here in Barcelona and the track was extremely wet this morning, so the session was delayed for a long time," said da Matta. "We went out for an installation lap and I felt something wrong with the car.

"I was trying to get the TF103 under control but it wasn't possible with the wet track and I hit the wall. I am fine, just frustrated because I was really hoping to get some good running today."

Testing at Barcelona concludes tomorrow.

Today's times:

Pos Driver Team-Engine Tyres Time Laps 1. Webber Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:27.463 64 2. Button BAR-Honda (B) 1:27.522 76 3. Fisichella Jordan-Ford (B) 1:28.706 75 4. Villeneuve BAR-Honda (B) 1:29.328 21 5. Alonso Renault (M) 1:29.637 35 6. Pizzonia Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:29.998 48 7. Montoya Williams-BMW (M) 1:30.743 33 8. R.Schumacher Williams-BMW (M) 1:31.444 29 9. Panis Toyota (M) 1:31.676 26 10. McNish Renault (M) 1:43.590 4 11. Firman Jordan-Ford (B) 2:04.548 10 12. da Matta Toyota (M) no time 1 All Timing Unofficial

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