Friday First Free Practice - Belgian GP

Rubens Barrichello continued his winning form from the Hungarian Grand Prix when he topped the times ahead of Ferrari teammate Michael Schumacher in Friday's opening practice for this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix.

The pair, split by just 0.025 seconds, firmed up predictions that they will be the men to beat around the Spa-Francorchamps circuit by beating the rest of the field by more than a second.

Barrichello finished with a time of 1:49.009, pipping his teammate late in the session and placing himself 1.046 seconds ahead of third-placed David Coulthard, of McLaren-Mercedes.

After an hour's delay due to fog the opening practice session, shortened from an hour to 30 minutes, got underway at 12pm local time with almost all the drivers coming out on track immediately. But there was nothing they could do to stop Ferrari's continued charge.

Italian Jarno Trulli was fourth fastest in the leading Michelin-shod Renault as temperatures sat at just 20 degrees, normally perfect conditions for their rivals on Bridgestone tyres. Finn Kimi Raikkonen, of McLaren-Mercedes, and Ulsterman Eddie Irvine, in a Jaguar, were both on Michelin rubber and finished fifth and sixth, but the latter was more than two seconds slower than the Ferrari pair.

Japan's Takuma Sato, of Jordan, Briton Jenson Button in the second Renault, Finn Mika Salo, of Toyota, and German Ralf Schumacher in the lead Williams-BMW finished off the top ten. Schumacher's Williams-BMW teammate Juan Pablo Montoya failed to set a competitive time and spent almost the entire session standing in the pits as his mechanics and engineers worked on a problem with his car.

But there were even more problems at Arrows, whose cars remained in the garages with Enrique Bernoldi standing around and Heinz-Harald Frentzen, the other nominated driver, already having made clear he would not turn up. The team are still waiting for a conclusion on their potential sale, but for the rest of the teams the session provided crucial minutes to prepare their cars for the challenges of the daunting circuit.

All drivers took things cautiously in the 30-minute practice, the delay of which had halved their time between the first and second sessions, and there were no early spinners.

Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Barrichello Ferrari (B) 1:49.009 230.117 km/h 8 2. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 1:49.034 + 0.025 8 3. Coulthard McLaren Mercedes (M) 1:50.055 + 1.046 10 4. Trulli Renault (M) 1:50.861 + 1.852 9 5. Raikkonen McLaren Mercedes (M) 1:50.876 + 1.867 7 6. Irvine Jaguar Cosworth (M) 1:51.202 + 2.193 6 7. Sato Jordan Honda (B) 1:51.517 + 2.508 12 8. Button Renault (M) 1:51.610 + 2.601 9 9. Salo Toyota (M) 1:51.717 + 2.708 8 10. R.Schumacher Williams BMW (M) 1:51.759 + 2.750 10 11. McNish Toyota (M) 1:51.772 + 2.763 8 12. Heidfeld Sauber Petronas (B) 1:51.854 + 2.845 9 13. Fisichella Jordan Honda (B) 1:51.917 + 2.908 9 14. de la Rosa Jaguar Cosworth (M) 1:52.089 + 3.080 4 15. Villeneuve BAR Honda (B) 1:52.455 + 3.446 12 16. Panis BAR Honda (B) 1:52.513 + 3.504 12 17. Massa Sauber Petronas (B) 1:52.755 + 3.746 9 18. Davidson Minardi Asiatech (M) 1:54.354 + 5.345 11 19. Webber Minardi Asiatech (M) 1:54.356 + 5.347 8 20. Montoya Williams BMW (M) 2:17.158 + 28.149 3 All Timing Unofficial