Saturday August 31st, 2002

By Will Gray

Finn Kimi Raikkonen knocked five-time World Champion Michael Schumacher off the top of the times for the second day in a row in Saturday's final practice session for Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix.

The McLaren-Mercedes youngster, who also went fastest in Friday's practice, set a time of 1:44.870 seconds to push the Ferrari star down to second as the clouds built around the Spa-Francorchamps circuit.

Raikkonen, 22, who almost beat Schumacher to victory in France last month, was only just faster - by 0.081 seconds - than his German rival, but the time was significant enough to leave slight question marks over the certainty of an all-Ferrari front row.

Scot David Coulthard finished third fastest in the second McLaren-Mercedes, 0.537 seconds slower than Raikkonen but just ahead of Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello in fourth, who seems to be struggling on the forested track.

The Williams-BMW pair of Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher finished fifth and sixth, more than five tenths of a second ahead of seventh placed Mika Salo's Toyota, as the Grand Prix newcomers continued to show impressive form.

Toyota-bound Olivier Panis was eighth for British American Racing, with Pedro de la Rosa ninth for Jaguar and Jenson Button, of Renault, completing the top ten.

The session concluded with little incident other than spins for both Michael and Ralf Schumacher, at turns eight and six respectively, and Australian Mark Webber finally beat new Minardi teammate Anthony Davidson by seven tenths of a second as the pair finished at the back of the pack.

Pos  Driver        Team                   Time                    Laps
 1.  Raikkonen     McLaren Mercedes  (M)  1:44.870  239.199 km/h  17  
 2.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari           (B)  1:44.951    +    0.081  17  
 3.  Coulthard     McLaren Mercedes  (M)  1:45.407    +    0.537  22  
 4.  Barrichello   Ferrari           (B)  1:45.451    +    0.581  21  
 5.  Montoya       Williams BMW      (M)  1:45.620    +    0.750  21  
 6.  R.Schumacher  Williams BMW      (M)  1:45.696    +    0.826  21  
 7.  Salo          Toyota            (M)  1:46.324    +    1.454  25  
 8.  Panis         BAR Honda         (B)  1:46.628    +    1.758  29  
 9.  de la Rosa    Jaguar Cosworth   (M)  1:46.759    +    1.889  23  
10.  Button        Renault           (M)  1:46.820    +    1.950  26  
11.  Fisichella    Jordan Honda      (B)  1:46.866    +    1.996  21  
12.  Irvine        Jaguar Cosworth   (M)  1:46.873    +    2.003  23  
13.  Villeneuve    BAR Honda         (B)  1:47.087    +    2.217  24  
14.  Massa         Sauber Petronas   (B)  1:47.092    +    2.222  23  
15.  Trulli        Renault           (M)  1:47.292    +    2.422  26  
16.  Sato          Jordan Honda      (B)  1:47.376    +    2.506  25  
17.  Heidfeld      Sauber Petronas   (B)  1:47.387    +    2.517  24  
18.  McNish        Toyota            (M)  1:47.670    +    2.800  17  
19.  Webber        Minardi Asiatech  (M)  1:48.735    +    3.865  14  
20.  Davidson      Minardi Asiatech  (M)  1:49.386    +    4.516  23  

All Timing Unofficial

Published at 09:03:57 GMT

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