Free practice 3: Hakkinen back in attack

Hakkinen took a trip across the grass at the first corner of the Gilles Villeneuve circuit halfway through the session, but was on the pace right from the start and toppled Ferrari rival Michael Schumacher with seven minutes to go. Then just to make sure the Finn improved his time in the dying seconds.

It was just as well he did go faster as Coulthard was also on a flier as the session drew to a close and leapt up from fourth fastest to take second place only 0.047s behind.

Schumacher had to be content with third, but the German was not far off and with the first session devoted mainly to perfecting race set-up, the reigning world champion is sure to come back fighting in both the morning's second session and qualifying.

Rubens Barrichello completed the Big Guns monopoly at the top by setting the fourth fastest time in the second Ferrari. The Brazilian did not manage to break into the 1m16s barrier and wound up just under half a second adrift of his illustrious team mate.

The Williams team was expected to go well this weekend and Ralf Schumacher continued to underline the threat of his BMW engine and Michelin tyre package by finishing fifth fastest.

Eddie Irvine continued to pull the punches by putting his ever-improving Jaguar in sixth place. The Ulsterman finished the day third quickest on Friday and leapt up ahead of Nick Heidfeld's Sauber in seventh in the last 10 minutes of today's first session. The improved pace of the R2 is clearly no flash in the pan either, as Irvine's team mate Pedro de la Rosa was two places behind in eighth.

The second Sauber of Kimi Raikkonen was ninth, just ahead of the highest-placed Honda-powered car, Olivier Panis' BAR. Jarno Trulli was just behind for Jordan in 11th and could have gone faster, but spun at L'Epingle hairpin and spent almost five minutes trying to find reverse gear.

Ricardo Zonta, who is standing in for Heinz-Harald Frentzen after the German had a recurrence of dizzy spells following his Monaco smash, finished 13th in the second Jordan behind the Prost of Jean Alesi.

For practice session 3 results, click here.