Saturday Second Free Practice - US GP

Jenson Button helped BAR-Honda to put Ferrari in the shade at the sunny Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Saturday when he beat World Champion Michael Schumacher to top the final practice session for the United States Grand Prix.

Briton Button, who only finished seventh and ninth in the Friday practice sessions, soared to the front with a time of 1:10.056 to finish 0.143 seconds ahead of his German rival.

In rising temperatures of 22 degrees Celcius and under bright blue skies Schumacher had topped the times early on but Button and team-mate Takuma Sato went faster late in the session.

Schumacher put in a late lap to push Japanese driver Sato down to third as Ferrari driver Rubens Barrichello completed the red and white top four with a time 0.295 seconds off the pace.

Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya and German Ralf Schumacher finished fifth and eighth respectively for Williams-BMW with Spaniard Fernando Alonso, of Renault, and Brazilian Cristiano da Matta, of Toyota, in sixth and seventh.

Italian Jarno Trulli was ninth in the second Renault with Finn Kimi Raikkonen, who claimed pole position and finished second in last year's race, completing the top ten runners in the leading McLaren-Mercedes.

Australian Mark Webber's session came to an end after 25 minutes when he crashed into the tyre barriers at turn six after something appeared to break on the car. He finished 15th.

Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Button BAR-Honda (M) 1:10.056 17 2. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 1:10.199 + 0.143 16 3. Sato BAR-Honda (M) 1:10.251 + 0.195 23 4. Barrichello Ferrari (B) 1:10.351 + 0.295 16 5. Montoya Williams-BMW (M) 1:10.708 + 0.652 13 6. Alonso Renault (M) 1:10.749 + 0.693 13 7. da Matta Toyota (M) 1:10.802 + 0.746 19 8. R.Schumacher Williams-BMW (M) 1:10.820 + 0.764 9 9. Trulli Renault (M) 1:10.848 + 0.792 13 10. Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:11.222 + 1.166 14 11. Panis Toyota (M) 1:11.242 + 1.186 20 12. Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:11.395 + 1.339 13 13. Klien Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:11.992 + 1.936 20 14. Heidfeld Jordan-Ford (B) 1:12.524 + 2.468 16 15. Webber Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:12.590 + 2.534 14 16. Pantano Jordan-Ford (B) 1:12.603 + 2.547 9 17. Fisichella Sauber-Petronas (B) 1:12.686 + 2.630 10 18. Massa Sauber-Petronas (B) 1:12.861 + 2.805 9 19. Baumgartner Minardi-Cosworth (B) 1:13.869 + 3.813 13 20. Bruni Minardi-Cosworth (B) 1:13.915 + 3.859 14 All timing unofficial