Friday First Free Practice

World Champion Michael Schumacher lit up the fan-filled A1-Ring on Friday morning when he scorched to the fastest time in opening practice for Sunday's Austrian Grand Prix.

The dominant German, who currently leads the World Championship by 21 points from Williams-BMW rival Juan Pablo Montoya, set a time of 1:11.072 as he and his Ferrari teammate Rubens Barrichello out-paced the rest of the field yet again. Schumacher set the exact quickest time twice in the session.

Brazilian Barrichello was second fastest, just more than two tenths of a second slower than the all-conquering 'red baron', and the two Ferrari-powered Sauber drivers, Felipe Massa and Nick Heidfeld, ensured it was the ideal session for the Italian company by taking third and fourth fastest times.

Brazilian Massa, benefiting from a new upgrade on his Ferrari engine for this event, was still 0.941 seconds slower than Schumacher in third, while German Heidfeld was just one hundredth of a second behind his teammate in fourth.

Italian Giancarlo Fisichella and Japan's Takuma Sato gave the struggling Jordan team a boost by setting the fifth and sixth fastest times of the session respectively, one place ahead of last year's winner David Coulthard.

Arrows driver Heinz-Harald Frentzen was eighth, with British American Racing drivers Jacques Villeneuve and his French teammate Olivier Panis rounding out the top ten.

The Williams-BMW pair of Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya were once again out of the top ten, as seems to be the trend on a Friday, with German Schumacher 11th and Colombian Montoya in 12th spot.

The session began in 20-degree heat as the clouds hugged the surrounding mountains and the sun shone on the partisan German fans who had turned up to watch their Schumacher heroes in action. Mark Webber was the first man out, and he was also the first man to go off the track when he got the final corner all wrong and clattered over the gravel later in the session.

Almost half of the session had passed before either Ferrari had come out of their respective garages, but when they did, it was Barrichello who topped the times with a 1:12.876 lap.

Almost immediately, however, Schumacher bettered that by almost half a second, and the pair traded places for the rest of the session until Schumacher put in his best effort with around ten minutes of the session remaining.

With seconds to go, the pair were out again, racing for the best time, but Barrichello pushed too hard and ended up in the gravel at turn three while Schumacher astonishingly set exactly the same time as his previous best.

Fisichella and Massa both went off after Barrichello, but fortunately both drivers avoided the stricken Ferrari and were able to continue as the session came to a close.

Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 1:11.072 219.124 km/h 16 2. Barrichello Ferrari (B) 1:11.280 + 0.208 15 3. Massa Sauber Petronas (B) 1:12.013 + 0.941 21 4. Heidfeld Sauber Petronas (B) 1:12.023 + 0.951 20 5. Fisichella Jordan Honda (B) 1:12.193 + 1.121 18 6. Sato Jordan Honda (B) 1:12.569 + 1.497 21 7. Coulthard McLaren Mercedes (M) 1:12.582 + 1.510 16 8. Frentzen Arrows Cosworth (B) 1:12.614 + 1.542 14 9. Villeneuve BAR Honda (B) 1:12.638 + 1.566 26 10. Panis BAR Honda (B) 1:12.653 + 1.581 31 11. R.Schumacher Williams BMW (M) 1:12.702 + 1.630 23 12. Montoya Williams BMW (M) 1:12.876 + 1.804 21 13. Trulli Renault (M) 1:12.991 + 1.919 22 14. Button Renault (M) 1:13.110 + 2.038 19 15. Irvine Jaguar Cosworth (M) 1:13.119 + 2.047 17 16. Bernoldi Arrows Cosworth (B) 1:13.170 + 2.098 11 17. McNish Toyota (M) 1:13.188 + 2.116 20 18. Raikkonen McLaren Mercedes (M) 1:13.391 + 2.319 13 19. Salo Toyota (M) 1:13.597 + 2.525 15 20. de la Rosa Jaguar Cosworth (M) 1:13.683 + 2.611 18 21. Webber Minardi Asiatech (M) 1:14.351 + 3.279 22 22. Yoong Minardi Asiatech (M) 1:15.593 + 4.521 26 All Timing Unofficial