As the teams re-configured their cars into qualifying trim, and in most cases therefore race trim, Schumacher got within two tenths of his fastest lap from the first of the morning's sessions. But whereas in the first session he was clearly fastest, this time it was a close run thing.

Ralf Schumacher, who ended the session third quickest, was first of the top men to post a time, setting his 1m33.973s lap with 15 minutes of the session gone. Then, as if to signal Michelin's apparent return to competitiveness, Juan Pablo Montoya emerged from the pits five minutes later and lowered the mark to 1m33.563s.

The Colombian's lap looked full of his usual awesome commitment and indicated that JPM has either settled on a balance he likes with the FW26, something he was entirely unable to do yesterday, or perhaps he has been holding back. Either way it took an immense effort from Schuey to eclipse his time, and then only just.

Jarno Trulli's Renault was fourth fastest. But although the Italian was quicker than team-mate Fernando Alonso, he seemed to be struggling with understeer that twice forced him to run across the gravel at Turn 8.

Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello was a distant eighth, half a second off his team-mate's pace and only just faster than BAR-Honda's Jenson Button, once again buried deep in the top ten.

The McLarens of Kimi Raikkonen and David Coulthard were next up in seventh and eighth. The Scot had held the upper hand until the end of the session, but in the end the Finn was quicker by just seven thousandths of a second.

Alonso was ninth fastest ahead of Jaguar's Mark Webber with Olivier Panis's Toyota just outside the top ten.

So it looks as if qualifying for the Malaysian GP may be a much closer affair than it had been in Australia. With not long to go before the one-lap shoot-out, less than a tenth separates the top Bridgestone and Michelin runners. Join us here after qualifying to find out if the French tyre company really has a tyre to compete with Ferrari in Sepang.