Ferrari expecting fight for pole

While second overall was still a very satisfying performance there was no sign of the demoralising showboating we saw in Australia, where Michael went out and instantly blitzed the opposition and left everyone trailing for the rest of the day. Team-mate Rubens Barrichello, one of many drivers to have a spin, finished the afternoon session in 10th place.

The team admitted afterwards that it was hard to judge exactly what the day's performances meant, but most observers agree that the extremely high temperatures have allowed the Michelin runners to close the performance gap we saw in Australia.

"It was an interesting Friday session, we did all the work we wanted to do," said Schumacher. "The car seems to be working well and I am quite happy with its balance, but there is still room for improvement. It certainly seems to be a step forward from what we have seen in the past here. But the signs are that it will be a tight competition tomorrow."

"This was a closely contested Friday, characterised by very high temperatures," noted Jean Todt. "Obviously, as we do not know what fuel levels our rivals were running, it is difficult to interpret the results. Along with Bridgestone, we worked on a comparison of the two types of tyre at our disposal. We still have some work to do on fine tuning the set-up on both cars. From what we have seen today, I think the rest of the weekend should see a close contest and we will be on the pace."

Ross Brawn admitted that the team still had some work to do: "We gathered plenty of information, but we are not completely happy with the car yet. Tonight we will study the data and make some progress tomorrow. As far as tyre choice is concerned, we did plenty of long runs in race conditions with both types of tyre, so we have all the information we need."