Trulli Fastest in Practice 4

Italian Trulli set a time of 1:32.832 to finish 0.038 seconds ahead of Austrian Red Bull Racing driver Christian Klien as the lead contenders took second stage in Sepang on Saturday morning.

Spaniard Fernando Alonso finished third fastest, just 0.010 off the pace of Klien, with Ralf Schumacher fourth fastest to ensure Toyota had their two cars in the top four runners.

Scot David Coulthard made it a good morning for Red Bull when he finished fifth fastest just ahead of Australian Grand Prix winner Giancarlo Fisichella, who finished sixth for Renault.

Finn Kimi Raikkonen finished seventh for McLaren with Williams duo Nick Heidfeld and Mark Webber finishing close together in eighth and ninth places respectively.

World Champion Michael Schumacher finished down in 16th place; Anthony Davidson, who replaces ill BAR driver Takuma Sato this weekend, finished in 10th place while his teammate Jenson Button failed to set a time.

Ralf Schumacher was the first to set a time in the session with a lap of 1:35.301 but he was immediately beaten by Kimi Raikkonen then his teammate Trulli pushed him down to third.

Coulthard made a mistake and went off at turn 11 after 14 minutes, the same turn that claimed Rubens Barrichello on Friday, and Alonso topped the times as temperatures rose to 32 degrees Celsius halfway through the session.

Schumacher stepped up the pace to move ahead with a lap 0.210 seconds faster than Alonso's but the session was stopped when Fisichella, winner in Australia, spun off after 16 minutes at turns 12 and 13.

The Italian driver lost control on a flying lap, ran wide and bumped over the kerbs and into the gravel trap. He lost his front wing in the process and had to abandon his car and sit out the rest of the session.

The session restarted after a break of six minutes but Briton Button was notable by his absence as the team were seen inspecting the car after smoke was emitted from his engine at the end of the first session.

Raikkonen moved to the top soon after the restart but Trulli moved ahead with 20 minutes of the session completed with a time more than a second faster than the previous best of the weekend.

Villeneuve had an off at the final corner with 27 minutes gone but he was able to continue and headed straight back down the pitlane then Heidfeld went off at turn two and also returned to the pits.

Klien then moved up to second place behind Trulli while Heidfeld and Juan Pablo Montoya, who eventually finished 11th for McLaren, both spun in the dying stages of the session.

Pos  Driver        Team                  Time                  Laps
 1.  Trulli        Toyota            (M)  1:32.832               12
 2.  Klien         Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:32.870  +    0.038    9
 3.  Alonso        Renault           (M)  1:32.880  +    0.048   11
 4.  R.Schumacher  Toyota            (M)  1:32.951  +    0.119   11
 5.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:33.092  +    0.260   10
 6.  Fisichella    Renault           (M)  1:33.194  +    0.362    8
 7.  Raikkonen     McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:33.349  +    0.517   12
 8.  Heidfeld      Williams-BMW      (M)  1:33.468  +    0.636    5
 9.  Webber        Williams-BMW      (M)  1:33.517  +    0.685   10
10.  Davidson      BAR-Honda         (M)  1:33.580  +    0.748   15
11.  Montoya       McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:33.689  +    0.857   10
12.  Barrichello   Ferrari           (B)  1:33.943  +    1.111   11
13.  Massa         Sauber-Petronas   (M)  1:34.002  +    1.170   10
14.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari           (B)  1:34.102  +    1.270   10
15.  Villeneuve    Sauber-Petronas   (M)  1:35.532  +    2.700    9
16.  Monteiro      Jordan-Toyota     (B)  1:37.824  +    4.992   10
17.  Karthikeyan   Jordan-Toyota     (B)  1:38.126  +    5.294    8
18.  Albers        Minardi-Cosworth  (B)  1:38.673  +    5.841   12
19.  Friesacher    Minardi-Cosworth  (B)  1:38.974  +    6.142   12
20.  Button        BAR-Honda         (M)  No Time                  

All timing unofficial