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Schumacher tops final practice - Turkey

Michael Schumacher dominated Saturday morning's relatively quiet final free practice session for Sunday's Turkish Grand Prix at the Istanbul Park circuit

The Ferrari driver set the morning's fastest time of 1:27.203 with just one minute of the session remaining.

Fernando Alonso was second fastest for Renault, seven tenths of a second slower than his championship rival.

Alonso's Renault teammate Giancarlo Fisichella was third fastest, after lapping the 5.338-kms Turkish track in 1:27.963.

BMW's Robert Kubica was fourth quickest, ahead of teammate Nick Heidfeld and Jenson Button for Honda.

Schumacher's earlier time of 1:28.318 stood as the quickest time for the majority of the session, before setting his fastest in the 59th minute.

The German was one of the drivers to run wide at the dauntingly quick Turn 8 left-hander - but emerged unscathed.

Twenty minutes before the end of the session, Red Bull Racing's Christian Klien suffered a high-speed spin at the same corner, when he hit the kerbs on the exit.

He was able to continue with no damage to the RB2 chassis. But both Midland's Tiago Monteiro and Toyota's Jarno Trulli also fell foul of Turn 8.

Unlike Friday's action-packed sessions, Saturday morning's third hour was much quieter.

In the first ten minutes, the only track action saw Midland drivers Christijan Albers and Tiago Monteiro both complete an installation lap but not set a time.

It was only after 20 minutes that the first of the front runners came to the track, as Kimi Raikkonen set the pace for McLaren, with a 1:30.179.

It was soon bettered by Michael Schumacher nearly half way into the hour, and he wasn't bettered after that.

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time              Laps
 1.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari             (B)  1:27.203           12
 2.  Alonso        Renault             (M)  1:27.924 + 0.721   16
 3.  Fisichella    Renault             (M)  1:27.963 + 0.760   17
 4.  Kubica        BMW-Sauber          (M)  1:27.964 + 0.761   15
 5.  Heidfeld      BMW-Sauber          (M)  1:28.151 + 0.948   14
 6.  Button        Honda               (M)  1:28.190 + 0.987   17
 7.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:28.266 + 1.063   14
 8.  Barrichello   Honda               (M)  1:28.359 + 1.156   15
 9.  Raikkonen     McLaren-Mercedes    (M)  1:28.368 + 1.165   11
10.  Klien         Red Bull-Ferrari    (M)  1:28.830 + 1.627    9
11.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)  1:28.861 + 1.658   17
12.  Speed         Toro Rosso-Cosworth (M)  1:28.861 + 1.658   14
13.  de la Rosa    McLaren-Mercedes    (M)  1:29.034 + 1.831   12
14.  Webber        Williams-Cosworth   (B)  1:29.069 + 1.866   10
15.  Rosberg       Williams-Cosworth   (B)  1:29.176 + 1.973   13
16.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Ferrari    (M)  1:29.357 + 2.154   12
17.  R.Schumacher  Toyota              (B)  1:29.374 + 2.171   18
18.  Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Cosworth (M)  1:29.426 + 2.223   19
19.  Albers        MF1-Toyota          (B)  1:29.668 + 2.465   19
20.  Yamamoto      Super Aguri-Honda   (B)  1:29.881 + 2.678   17
21.  Monteiro      MF1-Toyota          (B)  1:29.915 + 2.712   17
22.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda   (B)  1:30.151 + 2.948   21

All timing unofficial

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