Le Castellet (France): Heavy rain and freezing temperatures denied Force India a chance to test its aero package for the Canadian Grand Prix on the third and final day of testing at the Paul Ricard circuit here.

After a productive two days testing on the shorter, twistier circuit in preparation for next week's Monaco Grand Prix, the team planned to test its Canadian Grand Prix aero package on the longer 1EV2-SC circuit on the third and final day.

However, heavy rain and freezing temperatures made gathering any meaningful testing results difficult.

Giancarlo Fisichella was first out for the team in the morning on the lower downforce aero package designed for the long straights of Montreal.

The Italian put in one run before a clutch problem led to a long stop in the garage and just as it was rectified, rain started to fall heavily.

Fisichella did some testing in wet conditions before handing the car to Adrian Sutil, who completed just 13 laps.

"As we expected much of today was a wash out. It was possible to run dry tyres briefly at the start of the day with Giancarlo but unfortunately we had a mechanical problem that meant we lost some time in these conditions," chief race and test engineer of the team Dominic Harlow said.

Sutil and Fisichella also rued the lost day of practice.

"As such we started on extreme wets and got in a couple of runs to try out the wet set up. We did some starts and everything was okay, but with these conditions it is very difficult to draw any real conclusions," said Sutil.

"I did some running in the dry but then we had a mechanical problem and had to come in, which was a shame as then it started raining," added Fisichella.
Source : PTI