The surprises continued at Interlagos as
the final session of practice came to a close. This time it was
down to Toyota's Olivier Panis to provide the major talking point,
finishing at the top of the times with a 1m13.457s best.
Considering the Frenchman was just over 0.3s
off last year's pole time, the chances are his Toyota was running
with a small fuel load, but the truth will out only in the race
on Sunday.
The pitlane was a hive of activity as the
final chance to fine-tune settings before this afternoon's qualifying
session got underway. The two Jordans, the Williams of Ralf Schumacher
and the second Toyota of local boy Cristiano da Matta were first
out. The Brazilian couldn't emulate the achievements of team-mate
Panis, however and spun late in the session on the way to 16th.
Michael Schumacher set the second fastest
time, and was within 0.1s of Panis, with both hotly pursued by Renault
star Jarno Trulli. David Coulthard set the fourth quickest time
in the dying moments of the session, finishing ahead of Williams
ace Juan Pablo Montoya, with the Scot's team-mate Kimi Raikkonen
rounding out the top six.
Rubens Barrichello couldn't match his form
from the first of the morning's practice sessions and slipped back
to set the seventh fastest time. After being pipped to the fastest
time in yesterday's first qualifying session, the Brazilian did
gain some revenge by outpacing Jaguar's Mark Webber, but the two
remain locked next to each other on the timesheets. The way things
are going, it's a good job that green and red look so good together... |