By Nick Sparkes
April 23 2006

In the final practice session before this afternoon’s knockout qualifying hour, Michael Schumacher continued to impress in his updated Ferrari by going fastest, but as ever Fernando Alonso was right behind in second. Ralf Schumacher was the highest place Toyota in sixth. Saturday – Third Session

On a warm Imola race track where air temperature reached 26 degrees and track temperature hit 33 degrees Centigrade, Bridgestone and Ferrari looked to be right back on form with Michael Schumacher heading the time sheets, ahead of the Renault pair of Alonso and Fisichella, whilst Felipe Massa helped his chances by popping his Ferrari into the top fourth. After the troubles of yesterday, Ralf Schumacher was one of the first drivers out and headed the time sheets for half of the session. In the end the German would finish sixth, over a second behind the leading pace. Teammate Jarno Trulli was back in the back in seventeenth, almost two seconds behind his teammate, although Ralf had the higher track mileage. The surprise of the session has to be the pace of the Toro Rosso’s, with Luizzi finishing in the top ten whilst Speed was only four places behind his teammate. If this is the true pace of the Toro Rosso’s, expect some of the other midfield teams to be watching them closely during qualifying as its still felt that the V10 limited Cosworth engine is giving them an unfair advantage.

On a circuit which Toyota have traditionally struggled at, it seems a top ten starting slot is a real possibility, as teams like McLaren and Williams seem to be struggling to dial in their cars. All will be told in the frantic knockout qualifying session in a couple of hours time.

1	M. Schumacher		Ferrari		1:23.787	14
2	F. Alonso		Renault		1:24.068	15
3	G. Fisichella		Renault		1:24.377	21
4	F. Massa		Ferrari		1:24.383	17
5	K. Räikkönen		McLaren		1:24.626	12
6	R. Schumacher		Toyota		1:24.667	21
7	J. Button		Honda		1:24.850	23
8	J. Villeneuve		BMW		1:24.916	13
9	C. Klien		Red Bull		1:24.984	13
10	V. Liuzzi		Scuderia Toro Rosso		1:24.994	15
11	R. Barrichello		Honda		1:25.041	20
12	M. Webber		Williams		1:25.205	14
13	D. Coulthard		Red Bull		1:25.575	15
14	S. Speed		Scuderia Toro Rosso		1:25.662	19
15	N. Heidfeld		BMW		1:25.701	9
16	C. Albers		Midland F1		1:25.803	22
17	J. Trulli		Toyota		1:25.806	15
18	T. Monteiro		Midland F1		1:26.476	18
19	N. Rosberg		Williams		1:27.019	11
20	T. Sato		Super Aguri		1:28.267	18
21	Y. Ide		Super Aguri		1:29.330	20
22	JP. Montoya		McLaren		no time	1