Paul Ricard Test Day Three: Trulli Rises As Rain Falls

Rain showers interrupted the final day of testing at the Paul Ricard test in France today, but the poor weather did allow Toyota’s Jarno Trulli to gain some limelight at the top of the tables. With the teams running on the slightly faster Montreal configuration, everybody got a short chance to try out some set ups for the Canadian Grand Prix in three weeks time. The previous two days had been devoted to the upcoming Monaco Grand Prix, but requiring less downforce, Paul Ricard configuration had been adjusted slightly for today.

You run less downforce in Montreal compared to Monaco so the car set-up is very different and we had planned a lot of work on this. It was frustrating that the rain came early in the day and meant that we could not collect any dry data. Jarno Trulli.

Nelson Piquet Jr continued in the Renault today, following on from his warning from bosses and 193 laps yesterday. The Brazilian lapped the Hi-Tech Test-Track in second place and once again racked up the most laps of the day, touring Paul Ricard 60 times.

Pedro De La Rosa got chance to driver te McLaren MP4-23 today, completing 53 laps and working hard on the car set up. The Spanish driver finished his day ahead of Sebastian Vettel in the Scuderia Toro Rosso in forth and Felipe Massa in fifth. The Ferrari driver limited his laps to just 19 though, choosing to save the team’s miles for later on in the season when they could prove to be more valuable.

The only incidents of the day were caused by Nick Heidfeld and Adrian Sutil. The BMW driver had an off at T7 and damaged his rear-left suspension in the process. Sutil broke his nosecone towards the end of the day, and only completed 13 laps all afternoon. However, the Force India driver was able to make a few practice starts and left France in a buoyant mood.