Routine final practice at Spanish GP

No change in conditions for the fourth and final free practice for the Spanish Grand Prix, cool and cloudy but no rain expected. Ralf Schumacher and Nick Heidfeld were first on track for Williams and Sauber respectively, making a change from the usual Jordan or Minardi -- which was about as exciting as it got.

Heidfeld had a slight personal improvement on his earlier time but no change from fifth in the first practice session.

Team mate Felipe Massa improved to fourth early on but very few fast laps were being put in. Alex Yoong managed to cut his previous time by a second and a half to move his Minardi up to twentieth; there were some personal improvements but the order remained mostly static at the front initially. Arrows' Heinz-Harald Frentzen moved to seventh and Pedro de la Rosa showed a little better for Jaguar in fifteenth.

Jordan's Giancarlo Fisichella made a big step up to sixth fastest and Kimi Raikkonen edged up to third, joining the Ferraris in the 1:18s. BAR looked slightly more promising with Jacques Villeneuve in ninth then Hedifeld also broke into the 1:18s, going up to second.

Frentzen took fourth fastest, things looking very good for the Bridgestone runners as Olivier Panis improved to eighth. Takuma Sato spun his Jordan into the gravel bringing out the yellow flags but there was no disruption at a very quiet point.

In the last few minutes there was a bit more activity, Jenson Button up into fourth for Renault, David Coulthard going one better into third, only to be beaten by Michael Schumacher. Massa was on a very fast lap but got held up by traffic and couldn't improve. Final top six classification: Barrichello, Heidfeld, M. Schumacher, Coulthard, Button, Frentzen.

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments