Free practice 4: Ferrari 1-2-3

Nick Heidfeld did a superb job to set the second quickest time in the final free practice session for the Spanish GP. The Sauber driver was less than a tenth of a second slower than Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello, who held onto the top spot despite not improving his time

In a session that didn't come alive until near the end, the German followed Barrichello's lead by becoming only the second driver to go quicker than the 2001 pole time. Michael Schumacher set the fastest first sector spilt in a last-minute effort, but despite gaining two tenths from the morning he could not dislodge the Ferrari-powered Sauber.

Although the first three cars were all Bridgestone runners the Michelin-shod machines of David Coulthard and Jenson Button were closer to pace than expected, just half a second shy of Barrichello in fourth and fifth respectively.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen was again at the top of his game setting the sixth fastest time, despite being baulked by a Minardi on a flying lap. However, nothing seems to be going right for Williams at Barcelona and neither Ralf Schumacher nor Juan Pablo Montoya were in the top 10.

Ralf was 12th, behind Giancarlo Fischella's Jordan, while Montoya was two tenths down on his team-mate in 14th. Clearly there's a lot of work to be done to the FW24 in the couple of hours before qualifying...

It was a pretty quiet session in terms of off track incidents, with the only moment of note coming with 10 minutes left on the clock. Takuma Sato lost the rear of his Jordan midway through the sweeping third turn and spun through 360 degrees and into the gravel. The yellow car came to rest with a gentle nerf into the tyres, which dislodged the nose.

For full practice session 4 results, click here.