BAR's Takuma Sato and Jenson Button gave Ferrari's Michael Schumacher a taste of their speed as he prepared to fight for a fifth win in a row in Spain.
Sato and Button try to match Schumacher
BAR's Takuma Sato and Jenson Button gave Ferrari's Michael Schumacher a taste of their speed as he prepared to fight for a fifth win in a row in Spain.
Japan's Sato, hoping for his first career podium, roared around the Circuit de Catalunya in Saturday's final practice session before qualifying with the quickest time yet this weekend.
His lap of one minute 14.836 seconds compared to Schumacher's 2003 pole position time of 1:17.762.
British team mate Button, chasing his fourth successive podium after starting the last San Marino Grand Prix on pole position and finishing second, was quickest in the morning's first session.
Qualifying is crucial in Barcelona, a circuit that all drivers know down to the finest detail after months and
thousands of kilometres of testing there. Only once since 1991 has the winner not started on the front row of the grid and the exception that year - Schumacher in 1996 - qualified in third place.
Tomorrow's race is shaping up to be a battle between the BAR drivers and Schumacher, who can equal Formula One's best start to a season, but Ferrari's rivals looked more menacing in practice.
Italian Jarno Trulli, in a Renault, was second quickest in the first session ahead of Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya for Williams.
Montoya was third and Trulli fourth in the second stint with Schumacher ahead of them.