Nick Heidfeld and BMW Sauber took the bragging rights on the final day of testing at Jerez, while world champion Lewis Hamilton had a minor crash after being caught out by the gusty winds.
After two largely dry days the weather took a turn for the worse, with rain in the morning keeping the track damp until 12.30pm and strong winds making life difficult for the drivers in the afternoon.
With the blustery conditions preventing any useful aerodynamic work, BMW focused on the mechanical set-up of the F1.09 and Heidfeld topped the times with a best lap of 1m20.052s.
“The ever changing weather made it quite difficult to do continuous work during the Jerez test,” said the team’s technical coordinator Willy Rampf.
“Nevertheless we achieved the main targets of our development programme.
“Basically we concentrated on set-up work and evaluation of new components.
“Running the BMW Sauber F1.09 for the first time in full wet conditions was a valuable experience as well.
“In addition on one of the days we had the chance to test the 2010 specification tyres.
“Now we will have a busy weekend working out the programme for the last pre-season test in Barcelona next week.
“Then we will also have a complete race simulation and pit-stop practice on the schedule.”
Kimi Raikkonen concluded a strong week for Ferrari with the second quickest time, 0.35s behind Heidfeld.
Hamilton was third fastest despite the crash that brought his test to a premature end at 3.30pm, when a sudden gust of wind sent the McLaren off the track and into a tyre barrier.
While the impact speed was a mere 44km/h (27mph), the MP4-24 went in backwards, dislodging the rear wing and lightly damaging the car’s rear end.
With insufficient time remaining to effect repairs, the team opted to call it a day and switch its focus to preparations for next week’s test in Barcelona.
Red Bull Racing had intended to spend the day evaluating Bridgestone’s 2010 tyres, but the rain limited Mark Webber to just 47 laps.
The Australian emerged in the afternoon to post the fourth best time, 0.007s ahead of Kazuki Nakajima’s Williams.
“We finished our five-day test in Jerez today with Kazuki running through the 2010 tyre programme for Bridgestone,” reported Williams technical director Sam Michael.
“The tyres are designed to run without blankets, while the fronts will also be narrower than this year’s.
“Overall, we’ve had a productive week evaluating aerodynamic components and mechanical set-ups, as well as putting valuable mileage on engines and transmissions to be ready for Melbourne.
“Although we have not completed our programme fully, the Toyota engine’s durability (with the new, longer life regulations) has been extremely impressive.”
After showing impressive pace for most of the week, Toyota had to pack up early after Jarno Trulli damaged the TF109 over the kerbs midway through the afternoon.
The Italian therefore completed only 38 laps and finished at the bottom of the timesheet, but was pleased with the car’s performance over the test as a whole.
“That was a short day for us,” he said.
“We lost the morning to the weather but in the afternoon we had a chance to try out the 2010 Bridgestone slick tyres.
“The conditions remained difficult because the wind was still strong.
“On one run I picked up some damage to the front wing after running over kerbs.
“Still, we made it through a number of runs and collected data for the future.
“As for this season, this test shows that things are going well for us so we can be confident.”
The next test gets underway at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya on Monday.
Testing times from Jerez (Thursday 5 March)
1. HEIDFELD BMW 1m20.052s
2. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1m20.404s
3. HAMILTON McLaren 1m21.272s
4. WEBBER Red Bull 1m22.219s
5. NAKAJIMA Williams 1m22.226s
6. TRULLI Toyota 1m23.119s