Free practice 3: Schuey spins to the top

The German lost the rear end of his Ferrari at the chicane as he attempted his first hot lap of the day 22 minutes into the session. He returned to the track with 10 minutes to go and made amends, going a full three tenths of a second faster than his brother Ralf Schumacher, who had set the pace up to that point.

The world champion lowered the mark even further right at the end of the 45 minute session with a lap of 1m30.658s. Schumacher's Ferrari team-mate Rubens Barrichello had already managed to go second quickest, but was nearly a second slower. It looks like he and the rest of the field have plenty of work to do, if they are to match Michael at his home race.

Ralf's lap set after 14 minutes was good enough to hang on to third, ahead of Williams team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya, Nick Heidfeld's Sauber and Kimi Raikkonen's McLaren.

Other incidents in the session included Felipe Massa running wide in the new stadium section, and Jacques Villeneuve spinning at the Bit-Kehre right-hander.