Friday First Free Practice - Bahrain GP

Ferrari fired a warning shot ahead of this weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix when Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello blitzed the field on Friday morning in the first ever session at the Bahrain International Circuit.

The scarlet cars proved to be in a class of their own as Schumacher topped the timesheets with a lap of 1:32.158 to put him 0.493 seconds ahead of the second-placed Barrichello.

Their closest rival, BAR-Honda test driver Anthony Davidson, was 0.800 seconds behind Schumacher's leading Ferrari with Juan Pablo Montoya of Williams-BMW fourth on a time of 1:33.027 seconds.

Jenson Button continued BAR's good form by setting the fifth fastest time with David Coulthard sixth for McLaren-Mercedes, Ricardo Zonta seventh in the Toyota and Felipe Massa eighth for Sauber.

Kimi Raikkonen and Takuma Sato, of McLaren and BAR respectively, completed the top ten runners as the drivers explored the limits of the dusty desert track with most cars completing around 12 laps.

Jordan test driver Timo Glock made history when he became the first man to take to the track in a current Formula One car as he led out Toyota drivers Cristiano da Matta and Olivier Panis to open the session at 11am local time.

The entire field of cars briefly explored the track but 11 minutes and 30 seconds elapsed before the first lap time was set with Zonta posting an effort of 1:37.533.

Ralf Schumacher became the first spinner on the dusty track when he lost control of his Williams-BMW car at turn 13 with 21 minutes of the session completed but he was able to stay on track and return to the pits.

Schumacher's teammate Juan Pablo Montoya then made a mistake at turn 10 but he more than made up for the slip after moving to the top of the timesheets with a time of 1:34.664.

With 25 minutes remaining, Michael Schumacher stepped up and placed his Ferrari on the top as he set a lap time 1.224 seconds faster than Montoya with BAR-Honda test driver Davidson moving up to second 0.598 seconds behind.

Schumacher improved his time to a 1:32.678 but Barrichello went even faster to put himself 0.027 seconds ahead with the pair around 1.3 seconds quicker than their closest rival Davidson.

Montoya, the leading Williams driver, was now more than two seconds off the pace and he spun again as he tried to push for a time. Cristiano da Matta also lost control of his Toyota and spun at turn 10 and Glock spun at turn 15.

Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 1:32.158 13 2. Barrichello Ferrari (B) 1:32.651 + 0.493 13 3. Davidson BAR-Honda (M) 1:32.958 + 0.800 18 4. Montoya Williams-BMW (M) 1:33.027 + 0.869 14 5. Button BAR-Honda (M) 1:33.898 + 1.740 13 6. Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:34.023 + 1.865 10 7. Zonta Toyota (M) 1:34.289 + 2.131 20 8. Massa Sauber-Petronas (B) 1:34.488 + 2.330 12 9. Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:34.603 + 2.445 10 10. Sato BAR-Honda (M) 1:34.610 + 2.452 11 11. R.Schumacher Williams-BMW (M) 1:34.619 + 2.461 13 12. Trulli Renault (M) 1:34.796 + 2.638 6 13. Alonso Renault (M) 1:34.810 + 2.652 10 14. Heidfeld Jordan-Ford (B) 1:34.872 + 2.714 11 15. Pantano Jordan-Ford (B) 1:34.967 + 2.809 17 16. Fisichella Sauber-Petronas (B) 1:35.388 + 3.230 8 17. Glock Jordan-Ford (B) 1:35.760 + 3.602 16 18. Webber Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:35.905 + 3.747 11 19. Panis Toyota (M) 1:35.981 + 3.823 14 20. da Matta Toyota (M) 1:36.359 + 4.201 16 21. Klien Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:36.645 + 4.487 12 22. Baumgartner Minardi-Cosworth (B) 1:37.049 + 4.891 12 23. Bruni Minardi-Cosworth (B) 1:37.347 + 5.189 12 24. Wirdheim Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:37.443 + 5.285 12 25. Leinders Minardi-Cosworth (B) 1:37.792 + 5.634 18 All timing unofficial