Renaults set pace in Canada

The Renaults of Jarno Trulli and Fernando Alonso stunningly blew away the opposition in final practice ahead of tomorrow’s Canadian Grand Prix.

Even Michael Schumacher trailed in their wake at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve and it appears he faces a real battle on his hands to secure pole position in qualifying.

In the third of the four practice runs early on Alonso and Schumacher had become the first drivers to clock sub 74-seconds for the 4.361km track on the Ile Notre Dame in the middle of the St Lawrence Seaway which divides Montreal.

Schumacher had proved fastest with a 1:13.865 lap, and when he shaved a further four tenths off that time in the last session, it appeared then as if he would not be headed.

But first Alonso and then Trulli ducked under 73 seconds, with the Italian setting the pace by later clocking an even quicker time of 1:12.629, just under three tenths faster than his Spanish team-mate.

Trulli’s time was three seconds quicker than the pole of Williams driver Ralf Schumacher last year, and 3.3 seconds faster than the race lap record of the German’s team-mate, Juan Pablo Montoya, set two years ago.

Six-times world champion Schumacher, leading the current drivers’ championship by 14 points from team-mate Rubens Barrichello, had to content himself with sixth quickest as Jenson Button, BAR team-mate Takuma Sato and Montoya also produced late hot laps.

Button had yesterday complained of handling and balance problems with his BAR after the first two hour-long runs, however, his race engineers clearly rid the car of its gremlins.

The 24-year-old was less than four tenths of a second off the pace, while Japanese star Sato was six tenths down, closely followed by Colombian Montoya.

Behind Schumacher came the McLarens of Kimi Raikkonen and David Coulthard, followed by Barrichello who endured a poor morning in the second Ferrari.

The Brazilian needed a chassis change in between the two sessions after hitting one of the kerbs hard in the first 45-minute run, and did likewise again - and at the same spot – in the second run.