Business as usual for Ferrari

Neither driver was 100 percent happy with his car, however, which is ominous news for McLaren and Williams et al in their battle to stop the Scuderia taking yet another pole position in qualifying tomorrow (Saturday).

"It was the usual Friday," said Schumacher. "We tried a few changes to the set-up on the car and worked on a comparison programme between the two types of tyre. There is still some work to do in terms of finding the right set-up. Nevertheless, I'm pretty optimistic for the rest of the weekend."

Rubens Barrichello, who sported a Brazilian football top before changing into his race suit, set the pace in the first session, but like his team-mate he's expecting further improvements to his car ahead of tomorrow's sessions.

"This morning the car felt very good," he said. "We made a change to the car, but this afternoon it did not seem to have gone the way we expected. However, we have learned quite a lot for the race. As for tomorrow's qualifying session, I am reasonably optimistic."

Barrichello was fourth quickest in second practice, over a second behind pacesetter Kimi Raikkonen.