Saturday July 20th, 2002

By Will Gray

World Champion Michael Schumacher topped the times in Saturday's final practice for the French Grand Prix, after the session was interrupted by a high-speed crash involving Jordan driver Giancarlo Fisichella.

Italian driver Fisichella lost control of his Honda-powered machine when the front wing collapsed as he went over the kerbs on the exit of the Estoril corner. He crashed heavily and the session was stopped immediately as the tyre barriers were repaired and Fisichella was taken to the medical centre and then to Nevers hospital for a check-up.

When the session resumed, Ferrari's Schumacher pushed hard to make an improvement but spun for the second time this weekend - this time at the Adelaide hairpin - and then narrowly avoided the passing cars as he returned to the track and headed back to the garage.

German Schumacher finished just 0.021 seconds ahead of Finn Kimi Raikkonen, of Michelin-shod McLaren-Mercedes, as the increasing temperatures began to bring the teams on French rubber into their element.

Scot David Coulthard was third fastest, a quarter of a second behind his teammate Raikkonen, with Rubens Barrichello finishing fourth in the second Ferrari, more than half a second slower than teammate Schumacher.

Briton Jenson Button, whose future with Renault will be revealed after qualifying, posted the fifth fastest time of the day. He finished ahead of the Williams-BMW pairing of Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya and German Ralf Schumacher, who finished sixth and seventh, while Ulsterman Eddie Irvine continued his presence in the top ten with eighth fastest time. German Nick Heidfeld, of Sauber, and Italian Jarno Trulli, of Renault, completed the top ten.

Arrows finally made it out of their garages ten minutes before the end of the practice session, after sitting out all of the previous sessions as the team continued talks in a bid to allow new funding to be invested into the team.

After spending most of the morning out of their overalls, Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Enrique Bernoldi both failed to set a time, as they immediately returned to the garage after an installation run.

Pos  Driver        Team                   Time                    Laps
 1.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari           (B)  1:12.974  209.713 km/h  19  
 2.  Raikkonen     McLaren Mercedes  (M)  1:12.995    +    0.021  24  
 3.  Coulthard     McLaren Mercedes  (M)  1:13.249    +    0.275  21  
 4.  Barrichello   Ferrari           (B)  1:13.503    +    0.529  21  
 5.  Button        Renault           (M)  1:13.553    +    0.579  30  
 6.  Montoya       Williams BMW      (M)  1:13.633    +    0.659  32  
 7.  R.Schumacher  Williams BMW      (M)  1:13.728    +    0.754  32  
 8.  Irvine        Jaguar Cosworth   (M)  1:14.018    +    1.044  24  
 9.  Heidfeld      Sauber Petronas   (B)  1:14.108    +    1.134  28  
10.  Trulli        Renault           (M)  1:14.161    +    1.187  36  
11.  Massa         Sauber Petronas   (B)  1:14.211    +    1.237  24  
12.  de la Rosa    Jaguar Cosworth   (M)  1:14.211    +    1.237  33  
13.  Sato          Jordan Honda      (B)  1:14.503    +    1.529  34  
14.  Panis         BAR Honda         (B)  1:14.557    +    1.583  21  
15.  Fisichella    Jordan Honda      (B)  1:14.949    +    1.975  19  
16.  Villeneuve    BAR Honda         (B)  1:15.036    +    2.062  26  
17.  Salo          Toyota            (M)  1:15.516    +    2.542  27  
18.  McNish        Toyota            (M)  1:15.650    +    2.676  28  
19.  Webber        Minardi Asiatech  (M)  1:15.797    +    2.823  21  
20.  Yoong         Minardi Asiatech  (M)  1:17.207    +    4.233  42  

All Timing Unofficial

Published at 09:28:57 GMT

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