Sunday September 29th, 2002

By Will Gray

World Champion Michael Schumacher continued his clean sweep at the top of the Indianapolis timesheets this morning when he claimed the fastest time in the warm-up for the United States Grand Prix.

The Ferrari ace, who so far appears unbeatable around the 4.192km road course at the Motor Speedway, shot to a top time of 1:13.183 as he went faster and faster with ease.

Pole sitter Schumacher's teammate and front row partner Rubens Barrichello ensured another Ferrari one-two by finishing 0.138 seconds behind the German and 0.150 seconds faster than third placed Frenchman Olivier Panis of BAR Honda.

Jordan's Japanese driver Takuma Sato was fourth fastest while Finn Kimi Raikkonen, who will start from sixth on the grid, was fifth fastest for McLaren-Mercedes. Raikkonen finished half a second slower than Schumacher, while his teammate David Coulthard, who will start behind the Ferraris from third on the grid, was down in eighth place in the half-hour pre-race session.

Finn Mika Salo, preparing for his penultimate Grand Prix after announcing last month that he will retire from the sport at the end of the year, was sixth fastest in the Toyota.

Eddie Irvine moved back into the top ten after his dazzling form disappeared in qualifying to leave him 13th. He finished in seventh place for Jaguar after moving up to second behind Schumacher halfway through the session.

Giancarlo Fisichella's Jordan stopped at the end of the pitlane with an apparent electronics problem at a similar time and the mechanics spent several minutes frantically trying to solve the problem.

They got him back out following a change of steering wheel and the Italian driver still managed a time fast enough to get him into the top ten, just behind the ninth-placed Renault of Briton Jenson Button.

Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya finished in 11th place in the lead Williams-BMW after spinning between turns nine and ten right at the end of the practice session.

Pos  Driver        Team                   Time                    Laps
 1.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari           (B)  1:13.183  206.212 km/h  14  
 2.  Barrichello   Ferrari           (B)  1:13.321    +    0.138  16  
 3.  Panis         BAR Honda         (B)  1:13.471    +    0.288  12  
 4.  Sato          Jordan Honda      (B)  1:13.718    +    0.535  14  
 5.  Raikkonen     McLaren Mercedes  (M)  1:13.765    +    0.582  10  
 6.  Salo          Toyota            (M)  1:13.867    +    0.684  14  
 7.  Irvine        Jaguar Cosworth   (M)  1:13.898    +    0.715  15  
 8.  Coulthard     McLaren Mercedes  (M)  1:13.930    +    0.747  10  
 9.  Button        Renault           (M)  1:14.074    +    0.891   8  
10.  Fisichella    Jordan Honda      (B)  1:14.154    +    0.971  17  
11.  Montoya       Williams BMW      (M)  1:14.223    +    1.040  16  
12.  Frentzen      Sauber Petronas   (B)  1:14.236    +    1.053  13  
13.  Trulli        Renault           (M)  1:14.254    +    1.071  13  
14.  Villeneuve    BAR Honda         (B)  1:14.377    +    1.194  14  
15.  Heidfeld      Sauber Petronas   (B)  1:14.603    +    1.420  16  
16.  R.Schumacher  Williams BMW      (M)  1:14.650    +    1.467   8  
17.  de la Rosa    Jaguar Cosworth   (M)  1:14.844    +    1.661  15  
18.  McNish        Toyota            (M)  1:15.220    +    2.037  15  
19.  Webber        Minardi Asiatech  (M)  1:15.257    +    2.074  16  
20.  Yoong         Minardi Asiatech  (M)  1:15.522    +    2.339  13  

All Timing Unofficial

Published at 14:02:52 GMT

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