Schumacher jnr tops Brazil practice

Ralf Schumacher topped the times at the end of the first rain-lashed session for Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix

Williams had an unusual session. Ralf Schumacher was fastest while Alex Zanardi languished at the bottom of the field after his car stopped on the track after just one lap.

An unusual collection of names headed the times as they put in last minute flying laps on a drying track.

Apart from Michael Schumacher in third, the list included Giancarlo Fisichella second, Jarno Trulli fourth and Alexander Wurz in the other Benetton fifth.

David Coulthard had been fastest until the dying minutes but when the flag fell he was down to ninth. World champion Mika Hakkinen was way down in 15th place.

Coulthard commented afterwards, 'The time sheets mean nothing on a day like this.'

Ralf Schumacher was 1.7 seconds faster than the rest of the grid with a 1m 24.644s time - the only car to dip below the 1m 26sec mark.

Damon Hill, who was lying second with two minutes to go, wound up 12th.

The times are largely irrelevant because many teams used the untimed session for pre-race testing and not qualifying runs. Those out at the end when the track was drying would have set significantly faster times.

Pos.	Driver	Team	Time
1	Schumacher R.	Williams	1:24.644
2	Fisichella	Benetton	1:26.386
3	Schumacher M	Ferrari	1:27.613
4	Trulli	Prost	1:29.449
5	Wurz	Benetton	1:29.474
6	Panis	Prost	1:30.094
7	Diniz	Sauber	1:30.322
8	Frentzen	Jordan	1:30.623
9	Coulthard	McLaren	1:31.015
10	Takagi	Arrows	1:31.330
11	Herbert	Stewart	1:31.909
12	Hill	Jordan	1:32.229
13	Barrichello	Stewart	1:32.459
14	Zonta	BAR	1:32.509
15	Hakkinen	McLaren	1:34.192
16	Sarrazin	Minardi	1:34.271
17	Alesi	Sauber	1:34.869
18	Irvine	Ferrari	1: 35.850
19	Villeneuve	BAR	1:36.568
20	de la Rosa	Arrows	1:39.844
21	Gene	Minardi	1:41.892
22	Zanardi	Williams	-----------