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Schumacher on top in practice 3 - Britain

Michael Schumacher topped an incident-filled final free practice session for Sunday's British Grand Prix by setting the fastest lap of the weekend so far

Schumacher lapped the Silverstone circuit in 1:20.919 in his Ferrari - beating BMW Sauber driver Nick Heidfeld by just under half a second. Felipe Massa was third in the other Ferrari.

Kimi Raikkonen had his and McLaren's most competitive session of the weekend, ending up fourth quickest, but suffered a spin after clipping the grass under braking for the Club chicane on his final lap.

Giancarlo Fisichella was the best Renault for the second day running - beating his world champion teammate Fernando Alonso into fifth place.

Rubens Barrichello was seventh for Honda, ahead of BMW Sauber's Jacques Villeneuve.

But there was disappointment for the early-morning British crowd as Jenson Button and David Coulthard were only 11th and 12th fastest for Honda and Red Bull Racing.

Juan Pablo Montoya, who won at Silverstone last year, found his McLaren to be as unforgiving as Raikkonen's as he also went off at Club, but without spinning.

Suffering extreme vibrations from a flat-spotted right-front tyre, the Colombian also put all four wheels off the track when starting his next lap, forcing him into the pits for new rubber.

Christijan Albers stopped his Midland car on the concrete run-off area on the outside of the flat-out Copse corner after ten minutes has passed - the third time one of the Russian-owned cars had to be removed during the three sessions.

But fellow tail-enders Super Aguri fared even worse as their weekend turned to disaster in the space of two minutes near the middle of the session.

First, Takuma Sato crashed into the Armco barriers at Becketts, ripping off the right-hand side of his car.

And just two minutes later, his teammate Franck Montagny spun off into the gravel trap at Priory - ending his session.

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time              Laps
 1.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari             (B)  1:20.919           13
 2.  Heidfeld      BMW-Sauber          (M)  1:21.361 + 0.442   13
 3.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:21.633 + 0.714   15
 4.  Raikkonen     McLaren-Mercedes    (M)  1:21.771 + 0.852   12
 5.  Fisichella    Renault             (M)  1:21.859 + 0.940   12
 6.  Alonso        Renault             (M)  1:21.870 + 0.951   13
 7.  Barrichello   Honda               (M)  1:22.023 + 1.104   12
 8.  Villeneuve    BMW-Sauber          (M)  1:22.229 + 1.310   14
 9.  Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Cosworth (M)  1:22.456 + 1.537   18
10.  Speed         Toro Rosso-Cosworth (M)  1:22.532 + 1.613   14
11.  Button        Honda               (M)  1:22.596 + 1.677   15
12.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Ferrari    (M)  1:22.681 + 1.762   15
13.  Monteiro      MF1-Toyota          (B)  1:22.812 + 1.893   19
14.  Klien         Red Bull-Ferrari    (M)  1:22.921 + 2.002   14
15.  Montoya       McLaren-Mercedes    (M)  1:23.412 + 2.493    7
16.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)  1:23.459 + 2.540   13
17.  Webber        Williams-Cosworth   (B)  1:23.964 + 3.045   12
18.  Rosberg       Williams-Cosworth   (B)  1:24.010 + 3.091   11
19.  R.Schumacher  Toyota              (B)  1:24.386 + 3.467   12
20.  Montagny      Super Aguri-Honda   (B)  1:27.229 + 6.310   10
21.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda   (B)  1:27.525 + 6.606   12
22.  Albers        MF1-Toyota          (B)  No time             3

All timing unofficial

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