Saturday October 12th, 2002

By Timothy Collings

Warm sunshine, blue skies, a demonstration of blazing bravery from Takuma Sato and a resumption of normal service by Michael Schumacher ensured another decent-sized crowd at Suzuka had value for money on Saturday morning in final free practice for Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix. Red, definitely, was the colour again after a grey-and-silver Friday.

Schumacher, the quintuple World Champion, in his Ferrari, clocked the morning's best time of 1:32.978 to outstrip his younger brother Ralf by two-tenths as the competition at the front of the field signalled an entertaining qualifying session is in prospect for the afternoon. If Ralf, in his Williams-BMW, can maintain his challenge, the two siblings could deliver an all-German front row for the final race of the year.

In good conditions with a light breeze to cool the crowds basking in temperatures rising into the mid-20's Celsius, Kimi Raikkonen maintained his rise through the ranks by claiming third place for McLaren-Mercedes-Benz ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya's Williams. David Coulthard, in the second McLaren, was fifth and Rubens Barrichello sixth in the other scarlet Ferrari.

Eddie Irvine, reveling in the intrigue surrounding his future and enjoying a spell of good end-of-year form with the Jaguar team, was seventh and Takuma Sato, the young Japanese whose presence has swollen the crowds, was eighth for Jordan-Honda just an hour after escaping unscathed when his car's engine expired in a cloud of flames and smoke at the end of the morning's opening hour session.

Montoya, back in action in earnest after his heavy collision with the barriers on Friday, had another off-track excursion during the morning, but this time avoided making any untoward contact with the walls. Olivier Panis, in his BAR-Honda, and Mark Webber, in his Minardi, both stopped out on the circuit in the closing stages, but these were the only real incidents as the Schumachers regained control.

Pos  Driver        Team                   Time                    Laps
 1.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari           (B)  1:32.978  225.382 km/h  21  
 2.  R.Schumacher  Williams BMW      (M)  1:33.233    +    0.255  22  
 3.  Raikkonen     McLaren Mercedes  (M)  1:33.290    +    0.312  22  
 4.  Montoya       Williams BMW      (M)  1:33.525    +    0.547  20  
 5.  Coulthard     McLaren Mercedes  (M)  1:33.636    +    0.658  22  
 6.  Barrichello   Ferrari           (B)  1:33.688    +    0.710  18  
 7.  Irvine        Jaguar Cosworth   (M)  1:34.544    +    1.566  20  
 8.  Sato          Jordan Honda      (B)  1:34.657    +    1.679  22  
 9.  Button        Renault           (M)  1:34.723    +    1.745  21  
10.  Massa         Sauber Petronas   (B)  1:34.743    +    1.765  17  
11.  Fisichella    Jordan Honda      (B)  1:34.879    +    1.901  19  
12.  Heidfeld      Sauber Petronas   (B)  1:34.933    +    1.955  20  
13.  Villeneuve    BAR Honda         (B)  1:35.107    +    2.129  22  
14.  Trulli        Renault           (M)  1:35.330    +    2.352  20  
15.  Panis         BAR Honda         (B)  1:35.538    +    2.560  18  
16.  de la Rosa    Jaguar Cosworth   (M)  1:35.567    +    2.589  18  
17.  Salo          Toyota            (M)  1:36.265    +    3.287  21  
18.  Webber        Minardi Asiatech  (M)  1:36.585    +    3.607  19  
19.  McNish        Toyota            (M)  1:36.640    +    3.662  19  
20.  Yoong         Minardi Asiatech  (M)  1:37.972    +    4.994  25  

All Timing Unofficial

Published at 02:07:28 GMT