MAY 29, 2004

EUROPEAN GP - SATURDAY - PRACTICE SESSION 4 REPORT

Button beats the Ferrari men

Jenson Button gave BAR-Honda a big boost on Saturday morning when he set the fastest time in the two morning sessions, recording a lap which was two tenths of a second faster than the best that Michael Schumacher could manage. To back up the British driver's performance, Takuma Sato was third quickest with a lap just a fraction of a second slower than the Ferrari.

Kimi Raikkonen was fourth quickest but there remain question marks over the performance of the McLaren-Mercedes team with there being suspicion that the team is running the cars light in order to make a good impression on Mercedes-Benz home ground. This may continue in qualifying but the truth will be out in the race as if the cars are light they will have to pit early. Raikkonen was ahead of Rubens Barrichello in the second Ferrari with Fernando Alonso (Renault), David Coulthard (McLaren), Ralf Schumacher (BMW Williams), Olivier Panis and Cristiano da Matta (Toyota) and Giancarlo Fisichella's Sauber. Juan Pablo Montoya had a spin and failed to record a lap time, despite completing a total of 10 laps.

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