Raikkonen Fastest in Practice 4 - Germany

McLaren, who need to win to claw their way back into the title race, have been dominant all weekend, finishing fastest in every session so far with Raikkonen posting the fastest lap of the race drivers every time he has been on track.

And there was no change as the teams made final preparations for qualifying when Raikkonen set a time of 1:14.128, his fastest of the weekend, to lead home second-placed teammate Juan Pablo Montoya by 0.321 seconds.

Fernando Alonso continued to maintain his position as best of the rest as the Renault driver posted a time 0.630 seconds slower than Raikkonen while teammate Giancarlo Fisichella made it two Renaults in the top four.

Jenson Button finished fifth fastest in his BAR-Honda, giving him some hope of a third consecutive points finish on Sunday, while Mark Webber completed the session sixth fastest for Williams.

German World Champion Michael Schumacher, who headed into this weekend in pessimistic mood, provided some home cheer with sixth fastest time as he split the Williams cars and pushed compatriot Nick Heidfeld down to eighth.

Christian Klien finished ninth fastest in the lead Red Bull and Jarno Trulli completed the top ten for Toyota but finished 1.289 seconds off the pace of the lead McLaren.

With 20 minutes of the session gone Montoya led the way but only with a slight advantage of 0.050 seconds over Raikkonen while Klien was sitting in third for Red Bull.

Alonso then put in a fast lap to go top with 17 minutes left to run with a time of 1:14.758 but Raikkonen immediately responded and returned to the top spot when he went 0.630 seconds quicker then Montoya moved into second.

Trulli had a brief off at turn three early in the session, Alonso put a wheel wide on one of his flying laps, Jacques Villeneuve made a mistake at turn six and Schumacher went off at turn eight.

Schumacher was forced to return to the pits after going off at turn eight and Jordan driver Tiago Monteiro's Jordan had to be dragged clear after he beached it in a gravel trap with 10 minutes to go.

Pos  Driver        Team                  Time                  Laps
 1.  Raikkonen     McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:14.128               11
 2.  Montoya       McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:14.449  +    0.321   16
 3.  Alonso        Renault           (M)  1:14.758  +    0.630   12
 4.  Fisichella    Renault           (M)  1:14.958  +    0.830   15
 5.  Button        BAR-Honda         (M)  1:15.072  +    0.944   15
 6.  Webber        Williams-BMW      (M)  1:15.111  +    0.983   10
 7.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari           (B)  1:15.253  +    1.125   12
 8.  Heidfeld      Williams-BMW      (M)  1:15.255  +    1.127   10
 9.  Klien         Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:15.388  +    1.260   14
10.  Trulli        Toyota            (M)  1:15.417  +    1.289   14
11.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:15.491  +    1.363   13
12.  R.Schumacher  Toyota            (M)  1:15.585  +    1.457   18
13.  Sato          BAR-Honda         (M)  1:15.699  +    1.571   18
14.  Massa         Sauber-Petronas   (M)  1:15.781  +    1.653   12
15.  Villeneuve    Sauber-Petronas   (M)  1:16.037  +    1.909   13
16.  Barrichello   Ferrari           (B)  1:16.072  +    1.944   11
17.  Albers        Minardi-Cosworth  (B)  1:16.674  +    2.546   14
18.  Doornbos      Minardi-Cosworth  (B)  1:16.912  +    2.784   14
19.  Karthikeyan   Jordan-Toyota     (B)  1:17.210  +    3.082   16
20.  Monteiro      Jordan-Toyota     (B)  1:17.966  +    3.838   11

All timing unofficial