Practice 3: Panis quickest

Considering the Frenchman was just over 0.3s off last year's pole time, the chances are his Toyota was running with a small fuel load, but the truth will out only in the race on Sunday.

The pitlane was a hive of activity as the final chance to fine-tune settings before this afternoon's qualifying session got underway. The two Jordans, the Williams of Ralf Schumacher and the second Toyota of local boy Cristiano da Matta were first out. The Brazilian couldn't emulate the achievements of team-mate Panis, however and spun late in the session on the way to 16th.

Michael Schumacher set the second fastest time, and was within 0.1s of Panis, with both hotly pursued by Renault star Jarno Trulli. David Coulthard set the fourth quickest time in the dying moments of the session, finishing ahead of Williams ace Juan Pablo Montoya, with the Scot's team-mate Kimi Raikkonen rounding out the top six.

Rubens Barrichello couldn't match his form from the first of the morning's practice sessions and slipped back to set the seventh fastest time. After being pipped to the fastest time in yesterday's first qualifying session, the Brazilian did gain some revenge by outpacing Jaguar's Mark Webber, but the two remain locked next to each other on the timesheets. The way things are going, it's a good job that green and red look so good together...