Practice Session 4: DC pips jinxed Schuey

When McLaren and Mercedes shrugged away their Friday times as the consequence of running full tanks, they obviously weren't bluffing.

David Coulthard set the fastest time in the final session before this afternoon's all-important qualifying hour and lowered the bar to an amazing 1m27.540s.

To put the Scot's time in perspective, last year's pole time was 1m30.556s. And just to show how the tyre war has already lowered lap times and increased corner speeds to an amazing and somewhat frightening extent, 15 cars were faster than the 2000 qualifying benchmark - including the miraculous Minardi of Fernando Alonso.

Oh, and bear in mind that downforce has been reduced this year. And that they'll probably be even quicker this afternoon. Perhaps the sport's governing body, the FIA, is beginning to twitch just a little?

Second quickest among four cars getting into the 27s range was Michael Schumacher. But immediately after setting his time, the German pulled off at the Turn Six scene of his Friday shunt with front wheel problems, thought to be due to stones in the caliper. Crowds there were once again treated to the sight of a Ferrari swinging on the end of a crane.

Still, at least he ventured out. His team mate Rubens Barrichello was forced to watch the action from the pitlane after his engine failure in the first session.

Third fastest was McLaren's Mika Hakkinen, with Heinz-Harald Frentzen maintaining Jordan-Honda's 'best of the rest' status in fourth, just ahead of his team mate Jarno Trulli.

Ralf Schumacher looked ragged during his fastest laps, but still managed to grab sixth for Willaims-BMW, ahead of Olivier Panis's BAR and an impressive Kimi Raikkonen in eighth for Sauber.

Eddie Irvine was ninth for Jaguar, with Nick Heidfeld making it two Saubers in the top 10.

Two former Champ Car title-winners lined up 11th and 12th, Jacques Villeneuve's BAR-Honda edging Juan Pablo Montoya's Williams-BMW.

In the battle for last place, an off for Tarso Marques gave his Minardi team the dubious honour, while Button improved to 19th, three places back from his Benetton team mate Giancarlo Fisichella.

Qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix begins at 0200 GMT and lasts for an hour.

For full Practice Session 4 results, click here.