Ferrari Cancel Monday Test at Jerez Due to Rain

The curse of the bad weather seems to follow all F1 teams throughout the off-season testing. Like the fewer testing days this winter haven't been enough already, the ones that are actually on schedule are heavily affected by either snow, sandstorm and, more commonly, rain. It was the same situation at Jerez on Monday, when all teams had to adapt their testing operation to rainy conditions.

Seven of the eight outfits present at the Spanish track chose to go ahead with their programme and test the reliability of their 2009 challengers (mostly data collection), the only car “cooling off” for the entire day being the Ferrari F60. Felipe Massa saw his second day of testing at Jerez ruined, as Ferrari chose not to release their F60 on track.

Schedule to test the 2010-spec Bridgestone tires throughout the day, the Scuderia hoped the weather would improve in the afternoon. However, the rain persisted and Massa was left waiting for the tomorrow session to finally get some mileage this week.

Under the rainy conditions, the Toyota TF109 proved to be the most competitive car from the 7-pack, as Timo Glock recorded the fastest time of 1.30.979 during his 89 laps spent on the Jerez track. BMW's Robert Kubica and Williams' Nico Rosberg completed the podium, while followed by Force India's Giancarlo Fisichella and Sunday's performer Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull).

Again, McLaren MP4-24 was at the back of the pack, this time being tested by race driver Heikki Kovalainen. Also in perfect coordination with the Sunday session, the Renault R29 – driven by Nelsinho Piquet – was last on the timing sheets.

“The wet weather today meant we had to change our programme and(simply worked on getting miles on the car and using the wet weather tires. Because it continued raining throughout the day, the track conditions remained pretty consistent and so we were still able to learn some interesting things about the car,” argued Piquet.

Testing at Jerez will resume today.