Raikkonen sets pace in final practice.

Kimi Raikkonen moved to the head of the timesheets for the first time in a day-and-a-half at Interlagos as free practice came to a close ahead of Brazilian Grand Prix qualifying.

The Finn had not featured in the top three of any session prior to the final 45 minutes, but pulled the fastest laps of the day - and second best of the weekend so far - out of the bag to subdue a Renault team that had taken a 1-2 result in third practice. The title contenders showed why they are in just such a position, however, with third session pacesetter Fernando Alonso establishing himself as second fastest man.

Raikkonen's 1min 11.929secs effort was the only lap to duck below 1min 12secs across the two sessions, with Alonso's 1min 12.7 from S3 looking decidedly off the pace. The Spaniard responded, however, posting a 1min 12.110secs lap to close the gap late in the final session.

McLaren and Renault again emerged as the teams to beat, although Jenson Button managed to split the team-mates with third spot for BAR-Honda. The Briton had been fifth quickest in session three, but found a whole second to move into third behind Alonso before the final chequered flag. Giancarlo Fisichella took fourth place, just a hundredth shy of Button, while Juan Montoya, the best of the McLaren race regulars thus far, filled fifth spot, a further tenth adrift. The Colombian had ended the first of the day's two sessions with a spin, but showed no ill-effects later on.

Although times improved between the two sessions, cooler temperatures ensured that there was no major gain over those posted on the opening day of the meeting. As a result, Rubens Barrichello claimed sixth spot for Ferrari, again out-pacing team-mate Michael Schumacher, although the four-tenth gap from session three had narrowed to a single tenth by the end.

The two Schumacher brothers proved inseparable across the two sessions, although their positions were reversed by the chequered flag. Ralf headed Michael in session one, albeit by 0.048secs, while elder brother snatched the upper hand - by fractionally more - in S4.

Brazil continued to be well represented in the top ten, with both Antonio Pizzonia and Felipe Massa claiming spots in the top half, but there was less good news for their respective team-mates, who found themselves back in 19th and 16th positions, trailing both Jordans and, in Mark Webber's case, Christijan Albers' Minardi as well. The Australian had not emerged for much of the final session, suggesting mechanical maladies were to blame.

The Jordans were among the first to head into qualifying mode, with both Narain Karthikeyan and Tiago Monteiro leaping into the upper echelons before normality resumed. However, the two yellow cars managed to hold on to some honour, eventually filling 14th and 15th spots, with the Indian in the same tenth as Toyota's Jarno Trulli.

Christian Klien was back on track after his heavy shunt on Friday, and the Red Bull car appeared to back on its usual pace as the Austrian filled eleventh spot.