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Fisichella Fastest in Practice 4 - France

Giancarlo Fisichella put Renault on top in Saturday morning's final practice session for the French Grand Prix as the drivers made the most of a dry track ahead of afternoon qualifying

McLaren had dominated most of the session and looked set for a one-two finish but Fisichella posted a late lap to jump to the top with a time of 1:14.466.

Ralf Schumacher showed his Magny-Cours form has not faded when he finished second fastest for Toyota, setting a time just 0.137 seconds behind the leading Renault late in the session.

The former French Grand Prix winner, who has not raced at Magny-Cours since his triumph for Williams in 2003, showed no hangover from his crash at the United States Grand Prix two weeks ago.

Kimi Raikkonen finished third for McLaren, 0.054 seconds behind Schumacher and 0.183 seconds off the lead pace, with Championship leader Fernando Alonso fourth in the second Renault.

World Champion Michael Schumacher, who won the last race in the United States, finished fifth fastest, a little more than half a second off the lead pace in his Ferrari.

Takuma Sato finished sixth for BAR-Honda with his teammate Jenson Button down in ninth place while the second Ferrari of Rubens Barrichello ended up seventh.

Juan Pablo Montoya was more than six tenths of a second slower than teammate Raikkonen in eighth and Jarno Trulli, who claimed pole at Indianapolis, completed the top ten in the second Toyota.

The track had dried after a damp first practice and Raikkonen headed out on grooved tyres, the first driver of the day to do so, to put in a lap of 1:16.251 in temperatures of 20 degrees Celsius.

With 20 minutes gone all drivers apart from Williams' Nick Heidfeld and Jordan's Tiago Monteiro had set a time, all on dry tyres, with Raikkonen leading Alonso by 0.142 seconds and Trulli in third.

Raikkonen stepped up the mark when he pushed his time into the 1:15s, giving him almost a one-second advantage over Alonso, then Fisichella jumped into third, three tenths behind his teammate.

Montoya then moved to the top with a time of 1:15.223 but was still almost a second slower than McLaren test driver Pedro de la Rosa's fastest time of 1:14.460 from Friday and was ultimately beaten.

Alonso set the fastest time in the first session with a lap of 1:23.939 putting him 0.983 seconds ahead of Fisichella and Kimi Raikkonen 2.544 seconds slower in third.

Pos  Driver        Team                   Time                Laps
 1.  Fisichella    Renault           (M)  1:14.466            16
 2.  R.Schumacher  Toyota            (M)  1:14.603  + 0.137   13
 3.  Raikkonen     McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:14.649  + 0.183   14
 4.  Alonso        Renault           (M)  1:14.792  + 0.326   12
 5.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari           (B)  1:14.979  + 0.513   14
 6.  Sato          BAR-Honda         (M)  1:15.177  + 0.711   18
 7.  Barrichello   Ferrari           (B)  1:15.218  + 0.752   15
 8.  Montoya       McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:15.223  + 0.757   15
 9.  Button        BAR-Honda         (M)  1:15.228  + 0.762   18
10.  Trulli        Toyota            (M)  1:15.249  + 0.783   15
11.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:15.305  + 0.839   16
12.  Webber        Williams-BMW      (M)  1:16.080  + 1.614   12
13.  Klien         Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:16.095  + 1.629   17
14.  Villeneuve    Sauber-Petronas   (M)  1:16.125  + 1.659   15
15.  Heidfeld      Williams-BMW      (M)  1:16.372  + 1.906   12
16.  Massa         Sauber-Petronas   (M)  1:16.454  + 1.988   17
17.  Albers        Minardi-Cosworth  (B)  1:17.846  + 3.380   14
18.  Friesacher    Minardi-Cosworth  (B)  1:17.929  + 3.463   16
19.  Karthikeyan   Jordan-Toyota     (B)  1:18.195  + 3.729   14
20.  Monteiro      Jordan-Toyota     (B)  1:18.310  + 3.844   14

All timing unofficial

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