Free practice 3: Schumacher fights back

The Ferrari ace spent much of Friday behind the Silver Arrows of David Coulthard and the Scot looked set to continue his dominance by being the first man to dip into the 1m19s bracket early on in the hour long session. However, his reign at the top was shortlived and Schumacher posted a fastest lap of 1m18.634s to go more than half a second clear at the top.

Coulthard ultimately finished third behind team mate Hakkinen after a late charge from the Finn who pulled out all the stops to set a time of 1m19.281s and even took a trip across the gravel at the first corner on his in-lap.

Rubens Barrichello was next up to ensure Formula 1's Big Guns monopolised the top four slots and set exactly the sane time as Coulthard but finished fourth as he set the time later.

It never looked like anything other than a Ferrari and McLaren whitewash with Jordan's Jarno Trulli taking the top slot in the best-of-the-rest race in fifth, almost half a second behind the Ferrari number two.

Trulli's team mate Heinz-Harald Frentzen finished sixth and reaffirmed Jordan's status ahead of its Honda stable mates British American Racing, after Olivier Panis and Jacques Villeneuve took the upper hand on Friday. Panis slipped from fourth to 10th with Villeneuve just a place behind in 11th.

The ever-improving Sauber team continued to shine with its young driver duo of Nick Heidfeld taking seventh and eight place respectively.

San Marino Grand Prix winner Ralf Schumacher said before coming to Spain that he did not expect his Williams-BMW to suit the Circuit de Catalunya and his predictions have so far rung true. The German finished just inside the top 10 in ninth place while team mate Juan Pablo Montoya had to settle for 13th.

Link for Practice Session 3 Results click here.