Hakkinen fastest in French warm-up.

Mika Hakkinen pipped Michael Schumacher by the narrowest of margins to post the quickest lap of pre-race warm-up at Magny-Cours.

Just 0.001secs separated the old protagonists in the final practice session before this afternoon's French Grand Prix, after the Finn ducked inside Schumacher's time with six minutes of the half-hour session remaining.

It took roughly as much time at the opposite end of the session to set a representative time, as drivers performed their usual ritual of out-laps, in-laps and moves between race and spare cars, but eventually Nick Heidfeld settled on a machine to post a 1min 18.9secs benchmark

Even that would not last for long, however, as Mika Hakkinen and Jarno Trulli quickly set about knocking three seconds off the target; times dropping to a serious level as the drivers began their programmes of race condition running under pleasantly warm sunshine.

Schumacher then quickly supplanted Trulli with a 1min 15.429secs, a time which stood as best of the session until Hakkinen banged in his 1min 15.428secs effort late on. The Finn then spun going for a faster time, but remained at the top of the pile nonetheless.

Rubens Barrichello followed up his fastest time in last week's European GP warm-up with third spot at Magny-Cours, just a couple of tenths shy of the pace-setters, with the second McLaren of David Coulthard in fourth, another tenth back.

There was a distinct lack of pole-sitter among the top order, however, as Ralf Schumacher switched back and forth between his two cars, and only set 17th best time. Williams team-mate Juan Montoya clocked top speeds through the traps, but could not string together a lap good enough for higher than eleventh. The Colombian was second off the pace, with Schumacher Jr another click back.

The absence of blue-and-white in the top five allowed Jarno Trulli to back up his good qualifying position with fifth spot in warm-up, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen and Olivier Panis, both keen to find some race pace to overcome poor qualifying slots. Pedro de la Rosa, in the lead Jaguar, Heidfeld and Eddie Irvine rounded out the top ten.

Jacques Villeneuve was a disappointed 14th, sandwiched between the two Arrows cars, and with Heinz-Harald Frentzen for company, while the two Prosts were further back, either side of Schumacher. The Benetton,s dropped back to more customary 18th and 19th places, but well ahead of the two Minardis which brought up the rear.

Race morning warm-up - French Grand Prix.

1. Mika Hakkinen Finland McLaren-Mercedes 1min 15.428secs
2. Michael Schumacher Germany Ferrari-Ferrari 1min 15.429secs
3. Rubens Barrichello Brazil Ferrari-Ferrari 1min 15.676secs
4. David Coulthard Britain McLaren-Mercedes 1min 15.780sscs
5. Jarno Trulli Italy Jordan-Honda 1min 15.980secs
6. Kimi Raikkonen Finland Sauber-Petronas 1min 16.136secs
7. Olivier Panis France BAR-Honda 1min 16.184secs
8. Pedro de la Rosa Spain Jaguar-Cosworth 1min 16.426secs
9. Nick Heidfeld Germany Sauber-Petronas 1min 16.559secs 10. Eddie Irvine Britain Jaguar-Cosworth 1min 16.567secs
11. Juan Montoya Britain Williams-BMW 1min 16.735secs
12. Enrique Bernoldi Brazil Arrows-Asiatech 1min 16.777secs
13. Heinz-Harald Frentzen Germany Jordan-Honda 1min 16.952secs
14. Jacques Villeneuve Canada BAR-Honda 1min 17.073secs
15. Jos Verstappen Holland Arrows-Asiatech 1min 17.120secs
16. Luciano Burti Brazil Prost-Acer 1min 17.443secs
17. Ralf Schumacher Germany Williams-BMW 1min 17.605secs
18. Jean Alesi France Prost-Acer 1min 17.945secs
19. Giancarlo Fisichella Italy Benetton-Renault 1min 18.084sec
20. Jenson Button Britain Benetton-Renault 1min 18.431secs
21. Fernando Alonso Spain Minardi-European 1min 19.986secs
22. Tarso Marques Brazil Minardi-European 1min 21.295secs