Saturday Second Free Practice

Finn Kimi Raikkonen underlined the potential of McLaren-Mercedes' new MP4-19B car as he topped the times in the final practice session ahead of qualifying for the French Grand Prix.

Raikkonen, who missed Saturday's first session while McLaren cured a clutch problem on his car, set the pace with a best lap time of 1:14.513 after completing 17 laps of the Magny-Cours circuit.

He headed BAR-Honda driver Jenson Button by 0.055 seconds with Championship leader Michael Schumacher, who had been quickest in the first session, third for Ferrari.

Takuma Sato ended fourth for BAR-Honda with Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello fifth and Toyota driver Olivier Panis sixth fastest at his home race.

Cristiano da Matta completed a positive session for Toyota in seventh place, with McLaren's David Coulthard and the Renault pair of Jarno Trulli and Fernando Alonso completing the top-ten.

Williams driver Juan Pablo Montoya ended at the bottom of the times almost seven seconds slower than Raikkonen, while teammate Marc Gene, in for the injured Ralf Schumacher, was 11th.

Giancarlo Fisichella's Sauber ended in the barriers after 16 minutes of the session when the front suspension broke on his car as he ran across the kerbs at the final chicane.

Minardi driver Gianmaria Bruni also had his session cut short when he parked his car at the side of the track at turn three after encountering a problem.

Drivers must now finalise their tyre choices for qualifying and the race having being given the morning practice sessions to make a selection after the FIA deemed Friday's practice hours as wet sessions.

Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:14.513 18 2. Button BAR-Honda (M) 1:14.568 + 0.055 14 3. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 1:14.571 + 0.058 14 4. Sato BAR-Honda (M) 1:14.711 + 0.198 18 5. Barrichello Ferrari (B) 1:14.817 + 0.304 12 6. Panis Toyota (M) 1:14.883 + 0.370 23 7. da Matta Toyota (M) 1:14.885 + 0.372 22 8. Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:14.977 + 0.464 7 9. Trulli Renault (M) 1:15.033 + 0.520 12 10. Alonso Renault (M) 1:15.096 + 0.583 15 11. Gene Williams-BMW (M) 1:15.179 + 0.666 10 12. Webber Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:15.350 + 0.837 24 13. Klien Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:15.449 + 0.936 22 14. Massa Sauber-Petronas (B) 1:16.062 + 1.549 19 15. Fisichella Sauber-Petronas (B) 1:16.161 + 1.648 9 16. Baumgartner Minardi-Cosworth (B) 1:16.861 + 2.348 15 17. Pantano Jordan-Ford (B) 1:17.104 + 2.591 12 18. Heidfeld Jordan-Ford (B) 1:17.162 + 2.649 15 19. Bruni Minardi-Cosworth (B) 1:19.401 + 4.888 8 20. Montoya Williams-BMW (M) 1:21.458 + 6.945 8 All timing unofficial