By Alan Baldwin
Sao Paulo, Brazil - McLaren's David Coulthard pushed Ferrari's Michael Schumacher off the top of the leaderboard in Friday's free practice for Sunday's Brazilian Formula One Grand Prix.
Briton Coulthard set his fastest time in the day's second session, lapping the bumpy Interlagos circuit in one minute 15.220 seconds, 1.004 ahead of second fastest Italian Jarno Trulli in a Jordan.
Triple world champion Schumacher, chasing his seventh successive pole and win, was third in 1:16.598 after being fastest in the first afternoon session.
He was ahead of confident Colombian newcomer Juan Pablo Montoya who lapped fourth fastest in a Williams.
Coulthard, second overall in the championship, played down the significance of the times but was clearly pleased with his car after McLaren were comprehensively outclassed by Ferrari in the season's first two races.
"We have some changes here on the car which we evaluated this morning for running properly and definitely the car was performing more efficiently," he said.
"I don't want to say too much until we find out where we are in qualifying but I'm definitely encouraged.
"We've clearly been working hard because as you can see from Australia and Malaysia then we weren't on the pace. Today I'm not saying we are but we're definitely a little bit closer.
Coulthard's Finnish team-mate Mika Hakkinen, who spun in the opening session, was fifth fastest and complained about the bumpy surface.
Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello, the big local favourite for Sunday's race as the top Brazilian driver, was a disappointing seventh fastest after spinning off and stopping after 23 laps of the second session.
The first practice was marked by a bulky overhead camera that crashed to the ground in the Jaguar pits.
The incident again highlighted concerns over the infrastructure at Interlagos.
"A few minutes before the end of the session we heard a loud crash and the remote camera that sort of swivels in front of the garages came crashing down," said spokesman Nav Sidhu.
"The camera actually came down right in front of the garage but as the camera came down it also pulled down quite a heavy piece of scaffolding with it as well which just missed (team principal) Bobby (Rahal) by a few inches."
"There's nobody hurt but it was a bit of a fright." - Reuters