Trulli and Toyota end up on top, but teams left bemoaning lack of opportunity to test out Montreal-specification packages as the heavens open.

To see the day three testing times in full, click here

After two days spent fine-tuning set-ups for the Monaco Grand Prix in a week's time, the heavens opened on the third and final day of testing at Paul Ricard, as teams turned their focus to the altogether different type of set-up required for the Canadian Grand Prix a fortnight later.

The layout of the southern French track was altered to simulate the lower downforce, heavy-braking demands of the long straights, chicanes and hairpins of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, which the Formula 1 circus will visit on 8 June. The heavy rain that fell shortly after the morning's installation laps, however, disrupted running, with pace-setter Jarno Trulli completing just 26 laps in his Toyota, compared to the marathon 120 he had run the previous day in dry conditions.

The Italian nevertheless encountered no problems other than the adverse weather, and was able to take advantage of the rain by testing out both the wet and extreme wet Bridgestone Potenza tyres, before a downpour around lunchtime soaked the track and rendered further testing impossible.

"With the first two days of this week's test devoted to Monaco preparations, we had scheduled an intensive programme today," the 33-year-old explained. "Montreal is a very different type of circuit, and we wanted to try out different aerodynamic and mechanical solutions.

"You run less downforce in Montreal compared to Monaco, so the car set-up is very different and we had planned a lot of work on this. It was frustrating that the rain came early in the day and meant that we could not collect any dry data."

"We were planning a full day concentrating on Montreal-specific aerodynamic and mechanical set-ups," added the Japanese outfit's test team manager Gerd Pfeiffer, "but unfortunately the weather spoiled that.

"We initially fitted wet tyres to do a baseline run in the highest downforce specification we would run in Canada, but the rain got worse. The next time we went out, just before lunch, we ran the extreme wets but Jarno reported too much surface water.

"Then, in the small time we got at the very end of the day, we ran a couple of systems checks. It was a frustrating end to the test, but at least we collected a lot of data to prepare for Monaco over the first two days."

The under-fire Nelsinho Piquet wound up second-fastest in the Renault, just under three tenths shy of Trulli's best effort after completing 60 laps, the most of any driver at the Le Castellet circuit on the day. The Brazilian rookie acknowledged that it had been far from the easiest of days.

"Quite a frustrating day really," the 22-year-old summarised, "but there was no point in doing lots of miles in the wet conditions. Fortunately we did a lot of laps yesterday and got most of our work done, because we knew it was likely to be wet today. [It was] a good week overall, and I think we are well-prepared for Monaco next week."

"There was not much to be learnt today because of the poor weather," agreed the Régie's chief test engineer Christian Silk, "but Nelson managed a couple of runs in the dry this morning. He was pretty happy with the car on the longer circuit and everything was working well.

"For a lot of the day it was too wet to be safe to run, but when it was safe enough we got out and did some basic set-up work, and gave Nelson some more wet weather experience."

Pedro de la Rosa ended the day third-quickest for McLaren-Mercedes, with Scuderia Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel three tenths further behind in fourth, after getting his first taste of the small Faenza-based squad's new STR3 in low downforce-spec. The plan had been for team-mate Sébastien Bourdais to take over in the afternoon, but then the rain arrived…

"Sebastian did a very good job of dealing with a new car in low downforce trim, without traction control on a wet track," explained chief engineer Laurent Mekies. "However, the rain really intensified and the track was actually closed until late afternoon. By this time, we had already decided the best option was to pack up and concentrate on our Monaco preparation, so Bourdais did not get to drive today."

Felipe Massa sat fifth on the timesheets for world championship leaders Ferrari, the Brazilian like his competitors able to conduct only a handful of laps on dry-weather rubber and just 19 tours overall. The Scuderia's test driver Luca Badoer will carry out the final pre-Monaco shakedown at Maranello's Fiorano test track on Tuesday.

Nick Heidfeld was sixth-quickest for BMW-Sauber, despite a minor midday 'off' causing damage to the F1.08's bodywork and left front and rear suspension. Prior to that point the experienced German had worked through both medium downforce and wet-weather set-ups, in addition to trying out new parts for the upcoming grands prix.

Red Bull Racing test driver Sébastien Buemi wound up seventh of the eleven drivers present at the close of play, and the young Swiss star was left ruing the conditions that limited him to a scant 16 laps' running behind the wheel of the Milton Keynes-based concern's RB4.

"It was very frustrating," the leading GP2 ace acknowledged, "because I have not had much mileage in a Formula 1 car so far this year, so I was looking forward to today. We got a couple of runs in dry conditions, but then as I was meant to be doing a long-run test, the rain got much heavier and we decided the most sensible option was to stop running."

Giancarlo Fisichella took eighth spot for Force India, two places ahead of team-mate Adrian Sutil as the duo sandwiched Honda's Jenson Button on the final timesheets for the day. The Silverstone-based outfit's hopes of conducting much meaningful running with its lower downforce aero package were scuppered by the weather, and a lengthy clutch problem for Fisichella also curtailed the Italian's running before he handed over to Sutil for the afternoon session.

"I did some running in the dry," Fisichella related as he approaches his 200th grand prix start in Monaco next weekend, "but we had a mechanical problem and had to come in, which was a shame as then it started raining. We could still do 31 laps in the morning to try out the wet set up and made some improvements to the balance in the wet, which could be useful."

"This afternoon was very wet until the sun came out towards the end of the day," added Sutil. "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."

"As we expected much of today was a wash-out," concluded Force India chief race and test engineer Dominic Harlow. "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. The afternoon was also very wet, and Adrian could complete just 13 laps."

To see the day three testing times in full, click here