Sunday March 17th, 2002

Ferrari stayed on course to take a fourth successive victory in Sepang, when Rubens Barrichello narrowly outpaced Michael Schumacher in Sunday morning's warm-up for the Malaysian Grand Prix.

The Brazilian was one-tenth of a second faster than the quadruple World Champion, thanks to a lap clocked just as the flag fell, as the Italian team continued to show they are the outfit to beat on another hot and muggy day near the Malaysian capital.

Briton David Coulthard, in his McLaren-Mercedes, wound up third, just five-thousandths of a second behind Schumacher. He had struggled, but secured third place with a fast lap in the closing seconds.

Italian Jarno Trulli, who had been fastest earlier on, finished fourth in his Renault as the teams completed final set-up changes in preparation for the race. German Nick Heidfeld was fifth for the Petronas-backed Sauber in one of their 'home' races, ahead of Briton Jenson Button in the second Renault.

The Williams pairing of Colombian Juan-Pablo Montoya and German Ralf Schumacher were seventh and ninth respectively.

In a session of few incidents, run under a hazy sky as the heat built up, Ralf Schumacher spun his Williams-BMW at turn 14, but returned to the track in a flurry of tyre smoke. Local hope Alex Yoong paid a visit to the gravel trap at the same corner in his Minardi, but he too recovered and returned to the pits.

Pos  Driver        Team                    Times                 
 1.  Barrichello   Ferrari            (B)  1:39.611  200.327 km/h
 2.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari            (B)  1:39.748    +    0.137
 3.  Coulthard     McLaren Mercedes   (M)  1:39.753    +    0.142
 4.  Trulli        Renault            (M)  1:39.791    +    0.180
 5.  Heidfeld      Sauber Petronas    (B)  1:39.935    +    0.324
 6.  Button        Renault            (M)  1:40.192    +    0.581
 7.  Montoya       Williams BMW       (M)  1:40.211    +    0.600
 8.  de la Rosa    Jaguar Cosworth    (M)  1:40.266    +    0.655
 9.  R.Schumacher  Williams BMW       (M)  1:40.316    +    0.705
10.  Frentzen      Arrows Cosworth    (B)  1:40.436    +    0.825
11.  Massa         Sauber Petronas    (B)  1:40.493    +    0.882
12.  Bernoldi      Arrows Cosworth    (B)  1:40.621    +    1.010
13.  Sato          Jordan Honda       (B)  1:40.783    +    1.172
14.  Salo          Toyota             (M)  1:41.093    +    1.482
15.  Fisichella    Jordan Honda       (B)  1:41.466    +    1.855
16.  McNish        Toyota             (M)  1:41.510    +    1.899
17.  Irvine        Jaguar Cosworth    (M)  1:41.521    +    1.910
18.  Villeneuve    BAR Honda          (B)  1:41.600    +    1.989
19.  Raikkonen     McLaren Mercedes   (M)  1:41.638    +    2.027
20.  Panis         BAR Honda          (B)  1:42.101    +    2.490
21.  Webber        Minardi Asiatech   (M)  1:43.058    +    3.447
22.  Yoong         Minardi Asiatech   (M)  1:43.719    +    4.108

All Timing Unofficial

Published at 03:05:14 GMT