Friday First Free Practice

Rubens Barrichello and Michael Schumacher set the pace in Friday's opening practice session for the French Grand Prix after being the only drivers to set a time before heavy rain arrived.

The Ferrari pair were the only two drivers to put in laps on a dry circuit and finished more than three seconds ahead of Williams-BMW driver Marc Gene in third place.

Juan Pablo Montoya was involved in a big accident mid-way through the session when his Williams slid backwards into the gravel at turn six and was almost flipped as he flew into the barriers at high speed.

Montoya was one of seven drivers not to post a time including Renault's Fernando Alonso, Sauber pair Felipe Massa and Giancarlo Fisichella and McLaren pair Kimi Raikkonen and David Coulthard, who are both using the team's new car this weekend.

Schumacher was the first driver to set a lap time and then immediately lowered it on his next lap, before teammate Barrichello went a further 0.226 seconds quicker with his time of 1:15.447.

Gene, the Spaniard driving for Williams-BMW in place of the injured Ralf Schumacher, set his first lap almost four seconds slower than Barrichello just as heavy rain arrived 13 minutes into the session.

BAR-Honda test driver Anthony Davidson spun at turn 13 as conditions worsened and the FIA deemed the rain to be heavy enough to allow extreme wet weather tyres for the remainder of the session.

Jarno Trulli twice ran wide under braking on the wet track and Toyota's Olivier Panis was also caught out by the conditions.

Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Barrichello Ferrari (B) 1:15.487 4 2. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 1:15.713 + 0.226 4 3. Gene Williams-BMW (M) 1:19.348 + 3.861 14 4. Glock Jordan-Ford (B) 1:19.428 + 3.941 17 5. Pantano Jordan-Ford (B) 1:19.466 + 3.979 12 6. Heidfeld Jordan-Ford (B) 1:20.531 + 5.044 12 7. Bruni Minardi-Cosworth (B) 1:21.248 + 5.761 13 8. Leinders Minardi-Cosworth (B) 1:22.267 + 6.780 11 9. Davidson BAR-Honda (M) 1:26.552 + 11.065 17 10. da Matta Toyota (M) 1:26.757 + 11.270 5 11. Panis Toyota (M) 1:27.449 + 11.962 4 12. Button BAR-Honda (M) 1:28.317 + 12.830 5 13. Zonta Toyota (M) 1:29.085 + 13.598 18 14. Klien Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:29.626 + 14.139 8 15. Baumgartner Minardi-Cosworth (B) 1:29.877 + 14.390 12 16. Sato BAR-Honda (M) 1:30.092 + 14.605 10 17. Wirdheim Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:30.204 + 14.717 17 18. Trulli Renault (M) 1:39.392 + 23.905 4 19. Montoya Williams-BMW (M) No Time 3 20. Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes (M) No Time 1 21. Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes (M) No Time 1 22. Alonso Renault (M) No Time 3 23. Fisichella Sauber-Petronas (B) No Time 1 24. Massa Sauber-Petronas (B) No Time 3 25. Webber Jaguar-Cosworth (M) No Time 1 All timing unofficial