Friday First Free Practice - Italian GP

World Champion Michael Schumacher returned to Ferrari's backyard in front of his Tifosi fans and immediately showed them the sign of things to come when he dominated Friday's opening practice session for this weekend's Italian Grand Prix.

German Schumacher has continually claimed this weekend will be "a tough one" for Ferrari and said he expects a strong challenge from Williams-BMW - but he still finished 0.799 seconds faster than their leading driver, second placed Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya.

In a session with little incident run in overcast conditions with temperatures of just 16 degrees Celsius, Schumacher's time of 1:22.869 was just six tenths slower than Montoya's pole position time from last year.

German Ralf Schumacher claimed third in the second Williams-BMW, four tenths of a second behind teammate Montoya, while Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa and Ulsterman Eddie Irvine showed the long straights on the Monza circuit could suit their Jaguar cars by finishing fourth and sixth respectively.

Italian Jarno Trulli, in the leading Renault, clocked fifth fastest time, with Felipe Massa in the Sauber seventh, followed by the McLaren-Mercedes pair Briton David Coulthard and Finn Kimi Raikkonen in eighth and ninth and Frenchman Olivier Panis completing the top ten.

Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 1:22.869 251.225 km/h 17 2. Montoya Williams BMW (M) 1:23.668 + 0.799 15 3. R.Schumacher Williams BMW (M) 1:24.115 + 1.246 13 4. de la Rosa Jaguar Cosworth (M) 1:24.281 + 1.412 15 5. Trulli Renault (M) 1:24.800 + 1.931 17 6. Irvine Jaguar Cosworth (M) 1:24.805 + 1.936 16 7. Massa Sauber Petronas (B) 1:24.929 + 2.060 15 8. Coulthard McLaren Mercedes (M) 1:25.044 + 2.175 16 9. Raikkonen McLaren Mercedes (M) 1:25.061 + 2.192 16 10. Panis BAR Honda (B) 1:25.156 + 2.287 21 11. Button Renault (M) 1:25.196 + 2.327 18 12. Salo Toyota (M) 1:25.270 + 2.401 16 13. Fisichella Jordan Honda (B) 1:25.566 + 2.697 16 14. Sato Jordan Honda (B) 1:25.820 + 2.951 17 15. Villeneuve BAR Honda (B) 1:25.929 + 3.060 12 16. Heidfeld Sauber Petronas (B) 1:26.020 + 3.151 16 17. McNish Toyota (M) 1:26.126 + 3.257 13 18. Yoong Minardi Asiatech (M) 1:27.106 + 4.237 17 19. Webber Minardi Asiatech (M) 1:27.453 + 4.584 18 20. Barrichello Ferrari (B) 1:50.300 + 27.431 2 All Timing Unofficial