Practice 4: Schumacher stays on top

The Ferraris are looking extremely strong at Indianapolis, and just like yesterday, Eddie Irvine has proved to be their biggest challenger in his Jaguar. Whether he can replicate that in qualifying is another matter, however - a doubt held by Schumacher, who expects Williams and McLaren to both raise their game in the one-hour session.

Barrichello improved his time twice in the second 45-minute session of the morning, but did not have enough to top Schumacher's lap from earlier on. Then with six minutes left, Michael banged in a 1m11.158s to go 0.24s clear of the Brazilian.

Irvine left it late to push Ralf Schumacher's Williams down to fourth. The younger Schumacher had his third off of the weekend so far, narrowly missing a tyre wall.

David Coulthard was the first McLaren in fifth place, while his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen ended the session with a spin and knocked off his front wing against a tyre wall. He had rotated earlier on too and was eighth in the times behind Nick Heidfeld and Juan Pablo Montoya.

Qualifying is due to start at 1900 (BST)