Sauber ends Imola test

Sauber decided to call a halt to its final winter three day test at Imola on Monday due to poor weather conditions. Although Felipe Massa and Jacques Villeneuve managed some good running on the first day, covering nearly 170 laps between them, the conditions deteriorated on the following days.

On Sunday the track was too cold for the tyres to get up to the necessary temperature, resulting on only 9 laps for Villenueve and one installation lap for Massa. Snow on the final morning made it pointless to carry on.

"Due to snow on the track and very low temperatures it became impossible to run the cars and therefore we decided to discontinue the test," said technical director Willy Rampf.

"Consequently we were not able to conduct our programme in the originally planned extent. Yet, this cancellation does not have a direct impact on our preparations for Melbourne."

This is the final week of winter testing and other teams are working in the UK and Spain. Renault, Jordan and Red Bull are at Silverstone, while Ferrari, McLaren and Williams are in action at Valencia today.