Free practice 4: Schumacher on top again

Michael Schumacher set a blistering pace ahead of this afternoon's qualifying session for the Canadian Grand Prix to go three tenths of a second clear of nearest rival Juan Pablo Montoya

The Colombian jumped to the top of the times after 12 minutes, but did not remain there for long. Five minutes later, Schumacher banged in his best lap of the day so far - an impressive 1m13.395s.

Montoya went out at the end of the session in an attempt to beat it, but he made a mistake and cut across the grass at the Turns 3 and 4 right-left flick. With a couple of minutes still to run, he wanted another go, but did not have enough fuel.

Ralf Schumacher also cut a corner as he made a late dash for the quickest time when he overshot the final chicane. That meant he had to make do with fifth behind Rubens Barrichello and Kimi Raikkonen. He then had a problem on his in-lap, possibly being short of fuel, and needed a push from the marshals into the pit lane.

The session was not a good one for Barrichello. Both he and Schumacher improved their times in the opening minutes, but not long later it all went wrong for the Brazilian. He went into the fast Turns 8 and 9 chicane too quickly, cut across the grass, rejoined the track, but could not stop his Ferrari nosing into the outside wall. The front-end damage meant it was the end of his practice.

David Coulthard's McLaren was sixth ahead of the two Saubers of Felipe Massa and Nick Heidfeld. Massa had a spin at the first corner at the end of the 45-minute session. Jacques Villeneuve and Giancarlo Fisichella completed the top 10.

Other spinners included Jarno Trulli (Turn 8), Enrique Bernoldi (the first corner) and Eddie Irvine (the hairpin). The Ulsterman was forced to park his Jaguar at the end of the session with a fuel pump problem.

Qualifying takes place at 1800 (BST).