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Raikkonen sets out stall at European GP

Kimi Raikkonen, looking to regain the lead in the drivers' standings, posted the fastest time yesterday's rain-affected pre-qualifying for the European Grand Prix ahead of five-time world champion Michael Schumacher.

It was cloudy when Raikkonen set his time in the opening minutes of the session. He was timed in 1 minute, 29.989 seconds on the 5.148km circuit in his McLaren-Mercedes.

Schumacher in his Ferrari did 1:30.353 just ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya in a Williams-BMW, who finished in 1:30.378.

Ralf Schumacher, second in the Canadian Grand Prix behind his brother two weeks ago, was fourth in his Williams-BMW at 1:30.532. Rubens Barrichello in the other Ferrari did 1:30.842 for fifth.

Jarno Trulli clocked 1:31.143 and Renault teammate Fernando Alonso, third in the season standings, did 1:31.533 for seventh and eighth respectively.

Then rain came later in the session and nine drivers slipped their way to the bottom of the standings on a very wet track.

Pre-qualifying determines the order of today's official qualifying session. The drivers have just one lap to post a time to determine the starting grid for tomorrow's race.

Today's session will have the drivers in reverse order from yesterday's times. The strategy for the race will play a part as the teams will not be able to add fuel or change tires until the race begins tomorrow.

All the top drivers had completed when it started to rain about 35 minutes into the one-hour session.

Cristiano DaMatta in a Toyota and Jacques Villeneuve in a BAR-Honda spun off the track and did not post a time.

The session was stopped for five minutes and wet weather tires were allowed.

That didn't help the last few drivers. Olivier Panis, who led the morning free practice in 1:31.197, did 1:57.327 after the restart in his Toyota averaging about 40kph slower on his lap.

That didn't matter to the top drivers who started early.

As the leading scorer so far, Schumacher was the first out.

After having a rough start to the season, he is now leading in the driver standings, three points ahead of Raikkonen. Schumacher has won four of the last five races.

He is looking for a record fourth victory at the Nuerburgring.
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