Schumacher jnr tops Brazil practice

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.