Fisichella Fastest in Practice 4 - Japan
Giancarlo Fisichella was the pacesetter in the final practice session for the Japanese Grand Prix on Saturday as heavy rain soaked the Suzuka circuit ahead of the afternoon qualifying session
Renault driver Fisichella left it late in the session to secure the top spot with a lap of 1:50.136 but the times were relatively meaningless as the wet track and continuous rain limited running.
Indian Narain Karthikeyan, of Jordan, made it into the top two and almost finished the session ahead having set his flying lap in the closing seconds of the session.
Fisichella bumped him down to second but he was just 0.014 seconds behind, with Ralf Schumacher, of Toyota, third, Briton Jenson Button finishing fourth for BAR-Honda and Christijan Albers fifth for Minardi.
Jordan's Tiago Monteiro was sixth, Mark Webber, of Williams, seventh, Jarno Trulli eighth in the second Toyota, David Coulthard ninth for Red Bull and Robert Doornbos, the only man to complete double figures of laps, in tenth.
Outgoing World Champion Michael Schumacher failed to get out of the garage following his crash in first practice while the McLaren pair of Kimi Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya chose not to run.
Fernando Alonso, of Renault, led the way early on but there were few cars out on track due to the wet conditions with just six drivers completing a timed lap by the time the clock ticked down to ten minutes left.
Doornbos was caught out by the weather and spun after his first lap early in the session then Fisichella moved to the top, with Klien slotting into second to push Alonso to third.
A flurry of cars came out in the closing minutes but Fisichella remained on top until one minute from the end, when Ralf Schumacher moved ahead of the pile before Karthikeyan and finally Fisichella.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Fisichella Renault (M) 1:50.136 9 2. Karthikeyan Jordan-Toyota (B) 1:50.150 + 0.014 6 3. R.Schumacher Toyota (M) 1:50.369 + 0.233 8 4. Button BAR-Honda (M) 1:50.920 + 0.784 7 5. Albers Minardi-Cosworth (B) 1:50.994 + 0.858 8 6. Monteiro Jordan-Toyota (B) 1:51.223 + 1.087 6 7. Webber Williams-BMW (M) 1:51.274 + 1.138 5 8. Trulli Toyota (M) 1:51.503 + 1.367 8 9. Coulthard Red Bull-Cosworth (M) 1:51.710 + 1.574 9 10. Doornbos Minardi-Cosworth (B) 1:51.971 + 1.835 10 11. Alonso Renault (M) 1:52.667 + 2.531 9 12. Klien Red Bull-Cosworth (M) 1:52.897 + 2.761 4 13. Villeneuve Sauber-Petronas (M) 1:53.460 + 3.324 8 14. Barrichello Ferrari (B) 1:53.739 + 3.603 5 15. Massa Sauber-Petronas (M) 1:53.842 + 3.706 8 16. Sato BAR-Honda (M) 1:54.307 + 4.171 8 17. Pizzonia Williams-BMW (M) 2:01.075 + 10.939 4 18. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) No Time 19. Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes (M) No Time 20. Montoya McLaren-Mercedes (M) No Time All timing unofficial
Schumacher Fastest in Practice 3 - Japan
Ralf Gives Toyota Japan Pole in the Wet
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