The Honda Racing F1 Team today completed a three-day test at the Paul Ricard facility in the south of France. This week's test has enabled the team to prepare for the next two races on the Formula One calendar, the Monaco Grand Prix which takes place around the streets of Monte Carlo next weekend, and the Canadian Grand Prix, to be held at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal on 8 June.

Test and Reserve Driver Alex Wurz began the programme on Wednesday and concentrated on aerodynamic and set-up work in preparation for the unique demands of Monaco's tight, twisty and bumpy roads. Alex completed 142 laps of the 3.593km short configuration of the circuit.

Race driver Jenson Button took over the wheel of the RA108 on Thursday to continue the aerodynamic evaluations. A lunchtime rain shower interrupted his running for a short time, after which Jenson spent the afternoon completing a comprehensive tyre evaluation with the Bridgestone soft and super soft compounds. Jenson's final lap tally was 155 laps as the team completed their preparations for the Monaco race weekend.

For the final day of the test, the track configuration changed to a 5.255km Montreal style layout to facilitate preparations for the Canadian Grand Prix. With the RA108 in a lower downforce set-up, Jenson began an aerodynamic evaluation in the morning session. Unfortunately the predicted heavy rain showers hit the circuit around lunchtime and continued throughout the afternoon, curtailing any further serious running.

Jenson Button: "Thursday was a very useful day as we completed our preparations for Monaco. The afternoon session was particularly productive as we made some changes to the car which gave positive results. Unfortunately today has not proved to be as successful due to the rain showers which limited our running to a few dry laps this morning."

Alex Wurz: "We had a very good test day on Wednesday running the aerodynamic package for Monaco on the RA108. We had an ambitious programme to complete over the day which included an aero evaluation plus mechanical set-up and driveability work. I am pleased that we were able to successfully complete the full schedule over 142 laps."

Steve Clark: "The test at the Paul Ricard facility in the south of France is a traditional one ahead of Monaco and Montreal. The track has different choices of layout which allowed the teams to choose the two configurations best suited to our preparations for these races. Even so, the short twisty circuit used on Wednesday and Thursday does not really compare to the unique streets of Monaco. However, it does give the opportunity to test new bodywork components for what is the highest downforce circuit so far this season. This went well on the first two days with Alex having some good results with the aero and Jenson making set-up progress and developing the braking package. Unfortunately we had very little dry running today on the longer version of the circuit. On a positive note, our reliability and productivity remain very good with Alex and Jenson completing over 1000km and 300 laps of the short circuit on the first two days."