Christian Horner has blamed an "abrasive track" for the limited running of all teams in FP3 at Paul Ricard. As rain started to fall, most of the drivers opted to stay in the garage, with only three sets of intermediate and wet tyres available for the weekend.
Valtteri Bottas topped the session by setting a time whilst the dry conditions were there, but after the rain came there was little action on track.
Red Bull were one team that opted to stay in during the wet weather, and boss Horner told Sky Sports their reason for the no-show on track.
“This circuit is so abrasive on tyres that you’re going to need all of the wets you’ve got, especially if it stays wet for qualifying which is why none of the main protagonists went out.
“Shame for the fans really, we could do with a set of tyres of wets for a session like this that you can’t use later on, that you hand back maybe to get the drivers out there.”
With rain set for qualifying later and the possibility of some during tomorrow’s race, teams opted not to waste their tyres in practice and save them for the race, at the cost of experience of the wet track.