Barcelona day 1: Williams 1-2-3

Schumacher managed to maintain his slender advantage over last year's car and was just over a tenth up on Antonio Pizzonia and Juan Pablo Montoya who both used FW23s. Montoya was the biggest mover from the morning session, improving by almost a second to sneak into second spot.

Pizzonia was the day's busiest driver, completing 79 laps. He also caused two red flags, one when he spun, the other when his car stopped out on track with a minor mechanical problems.

Although he could not match the time of the Williams, it was a good day for Jenson Button. The new Renault R202 ran faultlessly on its debut and the Englishman was very upbeat about its performance.

"This was supposed to be just a shakedown but it ended up as much more than that," he said. "I had no problems at all and the car felt really good. The time was not too bad either, considering we were running with lots of fuel. I can actually feel what the car is doing; it's very predictable. I can't wait to drive it more over the next few days."

Olivier Panis showed good pace in the new BAR once again. The Frenchman worked on setting up the car, as the team will not be introducing any new aerodynamic components until next week's Valencia test. His best time was just over half a second off Schumacher's.

Eddie Irvine also gained a second over his morning time to end the day in sixth place. Jarno Trulli stopped on track with a mechanical problem in the Benetton B201 and was seventh, ahead of both Toyotas.

Rubens Barrichello was in action for Ferrari at Mugello in Italy today. The Brazilian drove one of last year's F2001 chassis fitted with some experimental components. He covered 26 laps in total, setting a best time of 1m23.120s. Ferrari joins the Barcelona test tomorrow (Tuesday).

Ralf Schumacher Williams-BMW* M 1m19.280s 53
Juan Pablo Montoya Williams-BMW M 1m19.373s 73
Antonio Pizzonia Williams-BMW 1m19.383s 79
Olivier Panis BAR-Honda* B 1m19.915s 61
A. Davidson BAR-Honda B 1m19.929s 78
E. Irvine Jaguar* M 1m20.477s 64
J. Trulli Renault M 1m20.495s 47
M. Salo Toyota* M 1m20.782s 58
J. Button Renault* M 1m21.089s 49
A. McNish Toyota* M 1m21.271s 77

M = Michelin
B = Bridgestone
* denotes 2002 car