The McLaren ace pipped his championship rival Fernando Alonso who had put his Renault in front in Saturday’s earlier run.

Alonso had made a late charge at Raikkonen’s benchmark time in the second session as well, but the Spaniard fell a frustrating tenth short.

Jenson Button put his BAR in third ahead of Renault’s Giancarlo Fisichella and McLaren’s Juan Pablo Montoya.

The Ferrari pairing of Rubens Barrichello and Michael Schumacher were surprisingly quick and finished sixth and seventh respectively.

Toyota’s Ralf Schumacher rounded out a tightly packed top eight.

Just over half a second separated Raikkonen and Ralf providing an enticing foundation for the afternoon’s qualifying duel.

The top men aside, the entire field was surprisingly close with the 20th placed Minardi of Robert Doornbos just two and a half seconds down on the leader.

The pace of Jordan came as some surprise with Narain Kartihkeyan and Tiago Monteiro finishing just over a second down in 14th and 15th respectively.

McLaren had been expected to run away with the Brazilian chequered however their rivals continued to apply the pressure through both of Saturday’s run.

Raikkonen’s pace shows that he will still be tough to beat however the fact that his rivals are so close behind at least provides hope.