Free practice 3: Schuey shows the way

Whether it was intentional or not, the teams certainly put forward a strong case for changes to be made to the practice format in F1 next year, as literally nothing happened for the first 15 minutes of Saturday's first session, leaving the fans in the grandstands and those who had stayed up to watch their digitals TVs with just empty tarmac to stare at.

Eventually Alex Yoong's Minardi emerged from the pitlane to break the silence. He was soon followed by the BARs of Jacques Villeneuve and Olivier Panis - both are short of track time following their problems on Friday.

Villeneuve set the early pace, lapping 1.5s faster than he managed the previous day. He was deposed at the top by Eddie Irvine, and the Jaguar driver's 1m35.533s was also considerably quicker than his Friday time as the team began the honing process of its qualifying set-up.

Friday's star, Kimi Raikkonen assumed his place at the head of the times, but his initial effort fell a few tenths short of his best from yesterday and he was soon usurped by Rubens Barrichello.

Michael Schumacher missed almost the whole of the Friday's second session, but it seemed to matter not when he became the first man into the 1m33s, with 15 of the 45 minutes remaining. Only Barrichello joined him by ducking under the 1m34s barrier, while Ralf Schumacher came closest to claim third spot.

David Coulthard was fifth, fractionally ahead of Raikkonen; Juan Pablo Montoya was sixth. Jarno Trulli did a good job to set the seventh best time for Renault. Eddie Irvine again went well for Jaguar in eighth, Giancarlo Fisichella was ninth, and Felipe Massa out-paced Nick Heidfeld to snatch 10th.

The session ended with a cloud of smoke engulfing the back straight after Takuma Sato's Honda engine went bang, but fortunately for the local hero the spare car is set up for him this weekend.

Jenson Button was 13th, but Allan McNish was off the pace in 18th, ahead of just the Minardis. The pace of Schumacher at the front will be a concern for the team and Alex Yoong, as the Malaysian was only two tenths inside the 107 percent limit.