Button closing in on Schumacher

Michael Schumacher reasserted his authority ahead of tomorrow’s San Marino Grand Prix – but finds Jenson Button continuing to breathe down his neck.

In the third – and penultimate – free-practice run prior to this afternoon’s qualifying session at Imola, Schumacher again produced a lap of under 81 seconds for the 4.933km circuit.

The six-times world champion, bidding for a seventh title after winning all three races this season from pole, clocked a time of one minute 20.856 seconds in his Ferrari.

Schumacher posted the quickest time overall yesterday, that in morning practice, only for Button to head the standings in the afternoon session as BAR finished one-two thanks to team-mate Takuma Sato.

It was Button, with confidence high after finishing on the podium in third in the last two grands prix in Malaysia and Bahrain, who appears the man most likely to challenge the 35-year-old German on this occasion.

Button finished just over three-tenths down on Schumacher with a time of 1:21.165, the 24-year-old separating the Ferraris as Rubens Barrichello was seven-tenths adrift of his team mate in third.

The Williams-BMW duo of Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher were fourth and fifth quickest respectively, albeit around a second down, with the Renault of Fernando Alonso and Sato then sixth and seventh.

The McLarens of David Coulthard and Kimi Raikkonen again look like they will struggle this afternoon as they have been off the pace all weekend so far, with the Scot and the Finn both posting times of just over one minute 22 seconds.