Valencia day 3: DC takes top spot

Coulthard pipped his young team mate to the top spot by just four thousandths of a second with a quick lap just before the end of the day. The Scot completed just 24 tours of the tight Spanish circuit compared to the mammoth 107 laps of Raikkonen.

Third-placed Fisichella comfortably out-paced his new team mate at Jordan Takuma Sato, who finished the day in eighth, while test driver Antonio Pizzonia maintained his lunch time position as lead Williams driver in fourth.

Jenson Button was fifth fastest, but the young Brit's day was brought to a premature end when the Renault engine powering his interim B201 spectacularly blew on the pit straight.

Concerns over the performance of this year's R3 continued to mount in the Jaguar camp as lead driver Eddie Irvine stopped out on the circuit twice and finished 12th while team mate Pedro de la Rosa was sixth in last year's car.

At the bottom end of the time sheets, three Minardis fought to avoid last place. Race driver Alex Yoong ended up on top in 13th, while former Formula Nissan champion Antonio Garcia made a very good account of himself finishing less than half a second behind the Malaysian. Italian youngster Mateo Bobbi took the final spot in 15th.

David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes M 1m12.910 24 laps
Kimi Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes M 1m12.914s 107 laps
Giancarlo Fisichella Jordan-Honda B 1m13.954s 95 laps
Antonio Pizzonia Williams-BMW M 1m14.320s 81 laps
Jenson Button Renault M 1m14.477s 49 laps
Pedro de la Rosa Jaguar M 1m15.585s 27 laps
Juan Pablo Montoya Williams-BMW M 1m14.819 42 laps
Takuma Sato Jordan-Honda B 1m14.871s 103 laps
Jarno Trulli Renault M 1m15.056s 30 laps
Mika Salo Toyota* M 1m15.324s 57 laps
Marc Gene Williams-BMW M 1m15.628 9 laps
Eddie Irvine Jaguar* M 1m16.065s 53 laps
Alex Yoong Minardi-European M 1m17.784s 50 laps
Antonio Garcia Minardi-European M 1m17.824s 30 laps
Mateo Bobbi Minardi-European M 1m18.076s 15 laps

M - Michelin
B - Bridgestone
* - 2002 car