Practice 3: Rubens once more

Barrichello, who was fastest in both sessions on Friday, was again flying on Saturday morning. Team-mate Schumacher had just popped in a 1m11.207s when Rubens recorded his 1m10.911s, which stood as the fastest time until the end of the session.

Button went second fastest near the end with a 1m11.071s lap, 0.160secs off Barrichello's best. His team-mate Takuma Sato, who hit trouble in the shape of Felipe Massa's Sauber yesterday, was seventh fastest today as he plays catch-up.

Another driver who made a pig's ear of yesterday was Renault's Fernando Alonso. He ended the session fourth fastest, despite swiping a chunk of bargeboard off his R24 at Turn 9.

Ralf Schumacher was fifth fastest for Williams, ahead of the second Renault of Jarno Trulli. Behind Sato came Toyota's Cristiano da Matta and McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen. The Jaguars of Mark Webber and Christian Klien were next up, with Juan Pablo Montoya languishing down in 12th in his Williams, the Colombian having a brief off-track excursion at Turn 9 early on.

David Coulthard was down in 15th in his McLaren, obviously struggling after yesterday's problems, while Minardi put in one of its best showings of the year with both Gianmaria Bruni and Zsolt Baumgartner outpacing the Jordans of Nick Heidfeld and Giorgio Pantano.