Raikkonen Not Getting Carried Away

McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen remained a threat to Ferrari's homecoming celebrations despite Michael Schumacher posting the fastest time of the day in Italian Grand Prix practice on Friday.

Finland's Raikkonen, winner in Spa to end Schumacher's streak of seven successive victories and give McLaren their first win in more than a year, hit back with the fastest lap of the afternoon session after the Ferrari driver had set the pace in the opening one.

His time of 1:20.846 on a sunny afternoon pipped Rubens Barrichello's lap of 1:20.899 and Schumacher's best second session effort of 1:21.080.

The times compared to last year's pole position of 1:20.963 and the race lap record of 1:21.832, suggesting that this weekend's qualifying could well witness the quickest lap in Formula One history.

"A good start to the race weekend but still a long way to go," said Raikkonen. "The car feels reasonably good, and my quick lap was not perfect as I was sliding a little bit more than expected. However we will work on fixing that in time for qualifying.

"It's always nice to be fastest, but it's too early to say where we will be tomorrow."

Raikkonen's teammate David Coulthard was 10th quickest over a second behind the Finn.

"We tested here last week, so I think we are pretty clear on tyres and really spent today adjusting the cars to the conditions we have this weekend," said the Scot. "As always it's early days and as a result I'm not making any predictions.

"We will continue to focus on our planned programme and then get excited if we are still top of the time sheets after Saturday's qualifying."