Sunday October 14th, 2001

Michael Schumacher maintained his dominating form in the morning warm-up for Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix, when he topped the times again for Ferrrari, outstripping nearest rival David Coulthard, in a McLaren-Mercedes, by nearly half a second.

But Schumacher's chief rival for the race, Williams-BMW leading driver Juan-Pablo Montoya, who starts alongside him on the front row of the grid, struggled in the session and was only able to clock the 17th fastest time because he spent the session working on scrubbing tyres instead of concentrating on a lap time. His Williams teammate Ralf Schumacher was also doing the same kind of work, along with most of the Michelin drivers in preparation for a race. Schumacher was in 11th place at the end of the session.

On a warm, sunlit morning of blue skies and with the track temperature recorded at 32 degrees Celsius, Schumacher produced a fastest lap of 1:36.231 seconds, at an average speed of 219.185 km/h. Second fastest Coulthard clocked a best lap in 1:36.685.

German Nick Heidfeld was third quickest in his Sauber, ahead of Italian Jarno Trulli and French veteran Jean Alesi, in their Jordan Hondas, and sixth placed Mika Hakkinen in the second McLaren.

The session was completed without any serious incident.

Pos  Driver        Team                    Times                 
 1.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari            (B)  1:36.231  219.372 km/h
 2.  Coulthard     McLaren Mercedes   (B)  1:36.685    +    0.454
 3.  Heidfeld      Sauber Petronas    (B)  1:36.966    +    0.735
 4.  Trulli        Jordan Honda       (B)  1:37.140    +    0.909
 5.  Alesi         Jordan Honda       (B)  1:37.361    +    1.130
 6.  Hakkinen      McLaren Mercedes   (B)  1:37.584    +    1.353
 7.  Barrichello   Ferrari            (B)  1:37.813    +    1.582
 8.  Frentzen      Prost Acer         (M)  1:37.891    +    1.660
 9.  Raikkonen     Sauber Petronas    (B)  1:37.942    +    1.711
10.  de la Rosa    Jaguar Cosworth    (M)  1:37.970    +    1.739
11.  R.Schumacher  Williams BMW       (M)  1:38.183    +    1.952
12.  Irvine        Jaguar Cosworth    (M)  1:38.263    +    2.032
13.  Villeneuve    BAR Honda          (B)  1:38.604    +    2.373
14.  Fisichella    Benetton Renault   (M)  1:38.641    +    2.410
15.  Button        Benetton Renault   (M)  1:38.740    +    2.509
16.  Panis         BAR Honda          (B)  1:39.091    +    2.860
17.  Montoya       Williams BMW       (M)  1:39.182    +    2.951
18.  Bernoldi      Arrows Asiatech    (B)  1:39.295    +    3.064
19.  Enge          Prost Acer         (M)  1:40.324    +    4.093
20.  Verstappen    Arrows Asiatech    (B)  1:40.482    +    4.251
21.  Yoong         Minardi European   (M)  1:41.104    +    4.873
22.  Alonso        Minardi European   (M)  1:42.142    +    5.911

All Timing Unofficial

Published at 01:34:12 GMT

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