Saturday March 16th, 2002

By Will Gray

Colombian Juan-Pablo Montoya soared to the top of the time-sheets in his Williams-BMW in Saturday morning's final free practice session for Sunday's Malaysian Grand Prix, leaving hot favourite Michael Schumacher languishing in sixth place behind Briton David Coulthard.

Montoya finished less than one-tenth of a second ahead of second-placed Finn Kimi Raikkonen, in a McLaren-Mercedes-Benz. His Williams teammate Ralf Schumacher was third. Brazilian Rubens Barrichello was the quickest Ferrari driver and claimed fourth ahead of Coulthard, who finished his session 15 minutes early after spinning at turn 14 where his right wheels touched the grass on the inside.

Coulthard ended up in a gravel trap and had to abandon his car, as he had on Friday morning when he was forced to push it back to the garage after an exhaust problem had started a fire.

Quadruple World Champion Schumacher, who has taken pole at all three previous Malaysian Grands Prix, contented himself with fine-tuning ahead of the afternoon qualifying session and finished four-tenths slower than Montoya. The German completed only 14 laps, however, compared to Montoya who did 24. Moreover, both Ferrari drivers ran on used tyres whereas Montoya used two new sets of tyres during practice today. This may give the Italian team a tyres advantage for the race.

German Heinz-Harald Frentzen, in an Arrows, failed to complete a flying lap in the first session after an oil leak problem forced him to remain in the garage and a fire late in the second session prevented him from improving on his 13th fastest time.

His compatriot Nick Heidfeld spun his Sauber at turn 14 early in the second session while Barrichello also had a brief 'off' at turn nine. Canadian Jacques Villeneuve, in a BAR Honda, and Alex Yoong, in a Minardi, also spun during the session, but both were able to continue and complete their laps.

Pos  Driver        Team                    Times                 
 1.  Montoya       Williams BMW       (M)  1:36.556  206.666 km/h
 2.  Raikkonen     McLaren Mercedes   (M)  1:36.648    +    0.092
 3.  R.Schumacher  Williams BMW       (M)  1:36.689    +    0.133
 4.  Barrichello   Ferrari            (B)  1:36.910    +    0.354
 5.  Coulthard     McLaren Mercedes   (M)  1:36.976    +    0.420
 6.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari            (B)  1:37.045    +    0.489
 7.  Button        Renault            (M)  1:37.609    +    1.053
 8.  Fisichella    Jordan Honda       (B)  1:38.215    +    1.659
 9.  Massa         Sauber Petronas    (B)  1:38.301    +    1.745
10.  Heidfeld      Sauber Petronas    (B)  1:38.320    +    1.764
11.  Salo          Toyota             (M)  1:38.366    +    1.810
12.  Bernoldi      Arrows Cosworth    (B)  1:38.478    +    1.922
13.  Frentzen      Arrows Cosworth    (B)  1:38.613    +    2.057
14.  de la Rosa    Jaguar Cosworth    (M)  1:38.734    +    2.178
15.  Trulli        Renault            (M)  1:38.796    +    2.240
16.  Sato          Jordan Honda       (B)  1:39.116    +    2.560
17.  Irvine        Jaguar Cosworth    (M)  1:39.319    +    2.763
18.  McNish        Toyota             (M)  1:39.349    +    2.793
19.  Villeneuve    BAR Honda          (B)  1:39.442    +    2.886
20.  Panis         BAR Honda          (B)  1:39.490    +    2.934
21.  Webber        Minardi Asiatech   (M)  1:40.060    +    3.504
22.  Yoong         Minardi Asiatech   (M)  1:40.656    +    4.100

All Timing Unofficial

Published at 03:08:27 GMT

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