Raikkonen Fastest in Practice 4 - China

Finn Raikkonen completed a morning double when he set the fastest time with a lap of 1:33.212 to lead home teammate Juan Pablo Montoya as McLaren followed up Pedro de la Rosa's double session topping performance from Friday practice.

But the Renault pair continue to sit on McLaren's tails and Fernando Alonso claimed the third best time for the Anglo-French outfit, 0.581 seconds slower than Raikkonen, with his teammate Giancarlo Fisichella fourth.

The session, run under bright but hazy sunshine in temperatures of 22 degrees Celsius, hinted at a strong battle for the constructors' Championship when the two teams go head-to-head on Sunday.

David Coulthard finished a satisfying fifth for Red Bull Racing, just ahead of the sixth-plaed Ferrari of Rubens Barrichello, who won this race last year, and Briton Jenson Button in the leading BAR-Honda machine in seventh.

Outgoing World Champion Michael Schumacher finished eighth fastest, 1.595 seconds off the pace of Raikkonen, with the Williams duo of Antonio Pizzonia and Mark Webber completing the top ten.

Fisichella and BAR-Honda driver Takuma Sato both spun at the second corner and Button, Webber, Sato and Jordan pair Tiago Monteiro and Narain Karthikeyan all made mistakes at turn 14 during the session.

Raikkonen set the fastest time as McLaren took control in the opening session with the Finn's lap of 1:34.253 putting him 0.193 seconds ahead of teammate Montoya with the two Renaults in third and fourth.

Pos  Driver         Team                  Time                  Laps
 1.  Raikkonen     McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:33.212               12
 2.  Montoya       McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:33.554  +    0.342   12
 3.  Alonso        Renault           (M)  1:33.793  +    0.581   13
 4.  Fisichella    Renault           (M)  1:34.392  +    1.180   11
 5.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:34.453  +    1.241   14
 6.  Barrichello   Ferrari           (B)  1:34.535  +    1.323   12
 7.  Button        BAR-Honda         (M)  1:34.729  +    1.517   12
 8.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari           (B)  1:34.807  +    1.595   11
 9.  Pizzonia      Williams-BMW      (M)  1:34.835  +    1.623   10
10.  Webber        Williams-BMW      (M)  1:35.004  +    1.792    8
11.  Trulli        Toyota            (M)  1:35.107  +    1.895   13
12.  Klien         Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:35.179  +    1.967   13
13.  Sato          BAR-Honda         (M)  1:35.280  +    2.068   17
14.  Karthikeyan   Jordan-Toyota     (B)  1:35.310  +    2.098    3
15.  R.Schumacher  Toyota            (M)  1:35.371  +    2.159   15
16.  Monteiro      Jordan-Toyota     (B)  1:35.488  +    2.276    8
17.  Massa         Sauber-Petronas   (M)  1:35.693  +    2.481   13
18.  Albers        Minardi-Cosworth  (B)  1:36.397  +    3.185   15
19.  Villeneuve    Sauber-Petronas   (M)  1:36.417  +    3.205   11
20.  Doornbos      Minardi-Cosworth  (B)  1:36.558  +    3.346   14

All timing unofficial