Saturday September 28th, 2002

By Will Gray

Michael Schumacher marginally improved his time from Saturday morning's first session and remained in control at the front of the field as he prepared for the afternoon qualifying session for Sunday's United States Grand Prix.

The German improved his earlier time of 1:11.262 by just 0.104 seconds but that was enough to hold onto the top spot as his Brazilian teammate Rubens Barrichello closed to within 0.236 seconds.

Barrichello made up on lost time on Friday to finish second while Briton Eddie Irvine was back on the pace after an early morning blip to move into third place by the end of the session. Irvine was 0.530 seconds slower than Schumacher and more than a tenth faster than fourth-placed Ralf Schumacher in the leading Williams-BMW machine. Briton David Coulthard was fifth fastest.

McLaren driver Coulthard once again outpaced his teammate Kimi Raikkonen, who finished eighth, more than a second slower than Schumacher, and crashed into the tyre barriers between turns nine and ten at end of the session.

German Nick Heidfeld was sixth for Sauber, one place ahead of Schumacher's Colombian teammate Juan Pablo Montoya, a former Indianapolis 500 winner, who languished in seventh spot 0.834 seconds off Schumacher's pace.

Italian Giancarlo Fisichella continued his impressive weekend to claim ninth spot for Jordan as teammate Takuma Sato sat out the session until the final minute and finished 16th after experiencing an engine fire in the first practice.

The second Sauber of German Heinz-Harald Frentzen was tenth fastest, while Minardi had a tough time with Malaysian Alex Yoong spinning and Australian Mark Webber missing out on almost all of the 45-minute session after stopping at the side of the track.

Pos  Driver        Team                   Time                    Laps
 1.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari           (B)  1:11.158  212.080 km/h  28  
 2.  Barrichello   Ferrari           (B)  1:11.394    +    0.236  29  
 3.  Irvine        Jaguar Cosworth   (M)  1:11.688    +    0.530  25  
 4.  R.Schumacher  Williams BMW      (M)  1:11.849    +    0.691  26  
 5.  Coulthard     McLaren Mercedes  (M)  1:11.909    +    0.751  22  
 6.  Heidfeld      Sauber Petronas   (B)  1:11.910    +    0.752  26  
 7.  Montoya       Williams BMW      (M)  1:11.992    +    0.834  24  
 8.  Raikkonen     McLaren Mercedes  (M)  1:12.162    +    1.004  26  
 9.  Fisichella    Jordan Honda      (B)  1:12.220    +    1.062  28  
10.  Frentzen      Sauber Petronas   (B)  1:12.589    +    1.431  23  
11.  Salo          Toyota            (M)  1:12.656    +    1.498  25  
12.  de la Rosa    Jaguar Cosworth   (M)  1:12.679    +    1.521  28  
13.  Villeneuve    BAR Honda         (B)  1:12.726    +    1.568  17  
14.  Panis         BAR Honda         (B)  1:12.746    +    1.588  28  
15.  Trulli        Renault           (M)  1:12.756    +    1.598  30  
16.  Sato          Jordan Honda      (B)  1:12.826    +    1.668  16  
17.  Button        Renault           (M)  1:12.878    +    1.720  28  
18.  McNish        Toyota            (M)  1:13.204    +    2.046  33  
19.  Webber        Minardi Asiatech  (M)  1:13.547    +    2.389  20  
20.  Yoong         Minardi Asiatech  (M)  1:13.562    +    2.404  34

All Timing Unofficial

Published at 16:01:44 GMT

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