F1 drivers are frustrated by wet weather

THE latest day of Formula 1 testing was again blighted by the wet weather, pushing to the limit the patience of all the drivers and teams.

The intermittent rain, along with strong winds, ensured the Jerez circuit in southern Spain was never completely dry at any stage, and that was reflected in the lap times.

Rubens Barrichello finished on top of the timesheets for Williams with the best of his day-high 98 laps a one minute 27.145secs.

To underline the nature of the conditions, Barrichello's time was 4.5secs slower than the quickest lap from yesterday posted by Red Bull Racing's Sebastian Vettel, and eight seconds down on Lewis Hamilton's best from last week at the same circuit for McLaren.

In complete contrast to Brazilian Barrichello, Pedro de la Rosa bothered to complete just eight laps in his Sauber because of the awful weather, finishing sixth overall in 1:29.691.

Renault's Russian rookie Vitaly Petrov at least managed to get some miles under his belt as he completed 56 laps, finishing just under 0.7secs behind Barrichello with the second fastest time.

Vettel was a second down in third, followed by Nico Rosberg for Mercedes and Felipe Massa in his Ferrari. Force India test driver Paul di Resta of Bathgate completed another 33 laps and finished with the seventh fastest time, followed by Virgin Racing's Timo Glock.