All is calm at Ferrari

Barrichello just edged out his team-mate for the fastest time of the day in the second session. And although Juan Pablo Montoya's Williams and Kimi Raikkonen's McLaren were only a tenth of a second slower than the red cars, the Ferrari drivers appear very confident ahead of the weekend's action.

"In general, it has been a good day," said Barrichello. "Right at the end of the morning session, I went off the track after I locked the front wheels under braking. This afternoon we concentrated mainly on the tyres and, as usual here, the grip will improve still further tomorrow."

Schumacher also had a couple of "excustions" of the track, but said that was a normal occurrence at the A1-Ring. "We are moving forward in the right way but the competition is close," he said. "I am happy with the performance of my tyres and I expected Rubens to be very quick here.

"As usual on the first day at this circuit, the track surface was very slippery. I expect qualifying will see a very close battle tomorrow."

There was alarm for the Michelin teams in the first session when only David Coulthard's McLaren made it into the top 10. But in the second session, the teams using the French rubber were more competitive.

Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn said: "At the start of the day, the Bridgestones seemed to have a big advantage, but the performance gap to the others closed up and the situation was more what we expected."