Practice 3: Ralf fastest as Michael spins

Although only third fastest in the previous session this morning, Ralf set the quickest time in free practice session three of 1m15.387s, 0.108s faster than Barrichello. Juan Pablo Montoya was third fastest in his Williams, although he didn't set a time until the last five minutes of the session.

Renault continues to be a lurking presence, with Fernando Alonso pipping team-mate Jarno Trulli for the fourth fastest time. Kimi Raikkonen was in the top six once more, a tenth clear of Jaguar's Mark Webber.

Championship leader Michael Schumacher was only eighth quickest, and was unable to get out of a gravel trap after going off in the dying moments of the session as he entered the stadium section. The car spun off backwards, but Schuey nerfed into the tyrewall as he tried to keep his momentum going and had to get out and hitch a lift off an ecstatic marshal.

Another two drivers that hit trouble were McLaren's David Coulthard and Formula 1 debutant Nicolas Kiesa, both of whom stopped in the final sector of the track relatively early in the session. Coulthard crashed into the wall in the stadium section on his first flying lap, while Kiesa recorded the slowest time of the session.

BAR-Honda duo Jenson Button and Jacques Villeneuve rounded out the top 10, the pair separated by just 0.003s. Toyota's Olivier Panis and Cristiano da Matta sandwiched the 12th placed Sauber of Heinz-Harald Frentzen.

Giancarlo Fisichella was 14th for Jordan, which has been the centre of attention in the off-track stakes this weekend, while Nick Heidfeld (Sauber), Justin Wilson (Jaguar), Ralph Firman (Jordan) and Jos Verstappen (Minardi) were next up.