Kimi Raikkonen and David Coulthard swept McLaren to the top of the timesheets as Ferrari faltered in Friday's free practice for Sunday's Japanese Formula One Grand Prix. Finland's Raikkonen, still seeking a first win at the end of his second season in Formula One, lapped nearly half a second faster than his team-mate Coulthard. However, his time of 1 minute 34.232sec was considerably slower than Michael Schumacher's 2001 pole of 1:32.484.
Raikkonen was 1.170 quicker than Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello with five time world champion Michael Schumacher finishing sixth fastest after being sidelined for much of the second session with an hydraulic problem desoute lapping fastest in the morning.
Eddie Irvine was just behind Schumacher in seventh fastest while the Jordans of Giancarlo Fisichela was 10th and Takuma Sato 13th quickest.
Ferrari are chasing their 15th win of the season, a victory that would equal McLaren's 1988 record set by the late former champion Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost.
Filed by Laura Reynolds
