Jun.13 (GMM) Rain affected the final hour of testing as a three-day group session kicked off at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya on Thursday.
The first shower fell at about 5pm, despite earlier predictions that the entire day would stay dry.Forecasts for Friday, day two, show a small chance of rain in the middle of the day, but the F1 team Red Bull late on Thursday declared that its own prediction "is for fine weather all day".Saturday, the final day, will be cloudy in the afternoon but almost certainly dry.Following F1 teams' trek to North America, test drivers predominated on Thursday, although Montreal winner Robert Kubica, and his fellow podium-getter David Coulthard, were in action.Testers Gary Paffett (McLaren), Luca Badoer (Ferrari), Sebastien Buemi (Red Bull), Anthony Davidson (Honda), Nico Hulkenberg (Williams) and Kamui Kobayashi (Toyota) all got rare chances to drive.Thursday was Renault test driver Romain Grosjean's first taste of a formula one car, and he was a credible two seconds slower than pacesetter Badoer."It was interesting to see the difference between a GP2 car and an F1 car which is quite incredible, especially the acceleration and the lateral grip," the Swiss-born Frenchman said.