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Another frustrating day of driving in the rain greeted the Formula one teams in Jerez, with Rubens Barrichello topping the time charts in the Williams. With the heavy rain showers and high winds that have so far characterised the testing showing no signs of abating, the teams focussed their energies on system checks and pitstop practice pretty much across the board.

The Williams looked good from a reliability perspective running the maximum number of laps of any car out on the circuit, ending with a time of 1:27.145. Like most of the others out on the track, the Brazilian too completed some systems checks and carried out a programme of pitstop practice.

Nico Rosberg was back in the Mercedes GP today, taking over from Michael Schumacher. The team worked hard to make the best of the ever-changing conditions with Nico completing a wet set-up programme in the morning and focusing on race procedures including practice pit stops in the afternoon when the track conditions became too poor for any meaningful running. Nico completed 71 laps today and posted a time of 1:28.515 to finish 4th fastest.

Rosberg said, "On the positive side, we achieved some good mileage today despite the conditions and completed a lot of our systems work. It was useful for me to practice pit stops and get into the routine for the races. However it has been difficult and frustrating with the weather as we're obviously not able to learn as much as we could with a dry track. But that's the same for everyone and we will hope for an improvement over the next two days."

Michael Schumacher will drive the MGP W01 tomorrow with Nico completing the programme on Saturday.

Force India modified its testing schedule slightly to allow the race drivers the best chance of the forecasted better weather later this week, with Paul di Resta getting another half day testing in the VJM03 before Tonio Liuzzi took over in the afternoon.

The team made the most of the amended programme to run through further set-up evaluation, plus race preparation and fuel and hydraulic systems checks. With no major issues Paul and Tonio completed over 250km in total.Paul di Resta said, "I was back in the car this morning to get a bit more running. Unfortunately the weather was again very bad, but at this stage any running gives me more experience of the car and how the team works. I ran with the intermediate and wet tyres over the morning, which at least means I have got some solid experience of wet running and it won't be such a novelty when I am faced with similar conditions in places such as Malaysia."

Tonio Liuzzi added, "The weather was so difficult today with the constantly changing conditions. It seemed to rain every hour and then dry, but it never reached a stable level: it was either too dry for wets or too wet for dry tyres so you couldn't get a consistent indicator of the performance."

Heikki Kovalainen took over driving duties in the Lotus Cosworth T127 for Thursday and Friday. First out on track at exactly 9am, Heikki completed his installation lap and returned to the pits to give positive initial feedback to the team about his first drive in the new car.

30 laps later and a small mistake saw the Finn leave the track, bringing the team's day to an early close, but not before useful data had been accumulated and more insights into the car's performance had given Chief Technical Officer Mike Gascoyne reasons to be positive. "Unfortunately a small off and a lack of spare parts curtailed the amount of laps we were able to do today, but fortunately we've got spare parts arriving this evening. Up to that point we had got on top of some reliability issues from the previous day and the car was running very smoothly. Although we have lost some track time, the changing conditions made it very difficult, so we haven't lost too much and we'll be ready to continue with Heikki in the morning."

Heikki added his thoughts, saying: "My initial feeling from the car is good - it fundamentally feels right. I'm disappointed the day came to an early end, but feel good about the team and I'm looking forward to getting back in the car tomorrow."

That being said, the Lotus was dead last in the time charts.

Timesheet

1. Rubens Barrichello, Williams, 1:27.145, 98 laps
2. Vitaly Petrov, Renault, 1:27.828, 56 laps
3. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, 1:28.162, 70 laps
4. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes GP, 1:28.515, 71 laps
5. Felipe Massa, Ferrari, 1:28.879, 92 laps
6. Pedro De La Rosa, BMW Sauber, 1:29.691, 8 laps
7. Paul Di Resta, Force India, 1:30.344, 33 laps
8. Timo Glock, Virgin Racing, 1:30.476, 72 laps
9. Tonio Liuzzi, Force India, 1:30.666, 24 laps
10. Lewis Hamilton, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, 1:30.979, 57 laps
11. Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso, 1:32.678, 57 laps
12. Heikki Kovalainen, Lotus, 1:33.554, 30 laps