It was almost 30 minutes into the session before we seen the F2002 of Barrichello on track, by which time the McLaren's had put in the fastest laps so far. But Rubens was quick to move to the top but following him on track is Schumacher who is going even faster. Barrichello moves into provisional pole position ahead of Raikkonen but he won't have that position for long as Schumacher goes quickest with a lap of 1m 31.825 seconds almost 1 second faster than Rubens!

Just as the top teams are getting ready for their second runs the session is red flagged as the Toyota of McNish goes off heavy on the exit of the 130R corner. McNish lost the back end coming out of the fast corner and his chassis slammed backwards and clipped the top of the barriers and landed on the grass behind. The rear end of the Toyota was destroyed on impact and he is lucky to be out of the car and waving to the crowd, he is taken to the medical centre for a check up. Montoya however managed to jump into second place just as the session was red flagged. The session will not be underway until the track officials make repairs to the smashed barrier, FIA race control predicts it could take 45 minutes.

After a very lengthy delay the track officials have repaired the barrier and what was a scene of carnage an hour ago is no more. Amazing how F1 just moves along and to look at 130R now you would never know the accident had happened, a fresh barrier has been welded into place and the green lights appear on the pit lane exit, with 24 minutes still to run in this very extended session.

Barrichello is out right away for his second run of the day and he is setting a quick pace he is up on the pole time at split 2. But by the time he crosses the line he has lost loads of time and he remains in third place but the improvement for Rubens is sure to come a 1.32.581 for the Brazilian. 17 minutes to go and pole sitter Schumacher is leaving the pitlane for his second run of the day as is Montoya who is beginning his third run. Barrichello also rejoins the track after a quick turnaround from his previous run.

Schumacher is improving his pole lap once more and he cements his pole position even further with a quicker lap of 1.31.510. R Schumacher pops into second behind his brother but he was quickly dropped back down to third as Barrichello crosses the line to take the second slot with a 1.32.244. Barrichello ran pretty wide down at Degner 2 and he lost plenty of time. And that loss of time hurt him as Coulthard soon moves into second place as the battle for the best of the rest behind Schumacher really is hot today.

As the final minutes of the session tick down Barrichello is once again out on track and once again he is faster than Michael Schumacher overall at split 2. But once again he loses time to Michael in the very short third sector and his day is done with a 1.31.749 and second place for the time being. 2 minutes to go and Schumacher takes to the track once more to defend his position at the front. Schumacher however needed no improvement as nobody came close to challenging him but he still puts in a flying lap just to prove his point. A 1.31.317 for the world champion secures him his fifth straight pole position here in Japan. Rubens Barrichello will be happy with his second place with Coulthard starting from third.