Friday First Free Practice - Spanish GP

World Champion Michael Schumacher set a sizzling pace in Friday morning practice for the Spanish Grand Prix when he smashed last year's pole time by more than two seconds to finish top of the timesheets.

The German Ferrari driver finished with a time of 1:15.658 to lead teammate Rubens Barrichello by 0.375 seconds and beat third-placed BAR-Honda test driver Anthony Davidson by 0.958 seconds.

His stunning performance, one that has become a norm over the opening four races of the season, proved that Ferrari will be the ones to beat again this weekend but Davidson's solid time also showed BAR could be their closest contenders.

Davidson had led the times early on in mild temperatures of 17 degrees Celsius and, after Ralf Schumacher had moved ahead with a strong lap, the British test driver upped the mark further to reclaim his place at the top.

But their times paled into insignificance when German Schumacher came out of the pits for his first flying lap, 35 minutes into the session, and smashed the fastest lap of the day.

Brazilian Barrichello then went second, one third of a second behind the German, on his flying lap as Davidson continued to tour around completing a total of 26 laps by the end of the session.

Brazilian Ricardo Zonta, the Toyota test driver, finished fourth fastest but he was the only other driver to finish within one second of Schumacher with Briton Jenson Button 1.402 seconds off the pace in fifth for BAR.

German Ralf Schumacher and Spaniard Fernando Alonso finished sixth and seventh for Williams-BMW and Renault respectively, with Takuma Sato, of Japan, ensuring all three BAR cars were well inside the top ten by finishing eighth.

Frenchman Olivier Panis, in the second Toyota, finished in ninth place with Finn Kimi Raikkonen rounding out the top ten in his McLaren-Mercedes, finishing almost two seconds down after five laps.

Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 1:15.658 8 2. Barrichello Ferrari (B) 1:16.033 + 0.375 8 3. Davidson BAR-Honda (M) 1:16.616 + 0.958 26 4. Zonta Toyota (M) 1:16.639 + 0.981 26 5. Button BAR-Honda (M) 1:17.060 + 1.402 6 6. R.Schumacher Williams-BMW (M) 1:17.165 + 1.507 12 7. Alonso Renault (M) 1:17.429 + 1.771 11 8. Sato BAR-Honda (M) 1:17.481 + 1.823 6 9. Panis Toyota (M) 1:17.489 + 1.831 6 10. Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:17.563 + 1.905 5 11. Montoya Williams-BMW (M) 1:17.635 + 1.977 10 12. Webber Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:17.763 + 2.105 11 13. Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:17.973 + 2.315 7 14. Trulli Renault (M) 1:18.341 + 2.683 16 15. da Matta Toyota (M) 1:18.362 + 2.704 12 16. Wirdheim Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:18.603 + 2.945 20 17. Klien Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:18.615 + 2.957 14 18. Glock Jordan-Ford (B) 1:18.655 + 2.997 23 19. Massa Sauber-Petronas (B) 1:18.760 + 3.102 11 20. Fisichella Sauber-Petronas (B) 1:18.886 + 3.228 12 21. Heidfeld Jordan-Ford (B) 1:19.198 + 3.540 16 22. Pantano Jordan-Ford (B) 1:19.925 + 4.267 14 23. Bruni Minardi-Cosworth (B) 1:20.858 + 5.200 16 24. Leinders Minardi-Cosworth (B) 1:21.053 + 5.395 21 25. Baumgartner Minardi-Cosworth (B) 1:21.535 + 5.877 17 All timing unofficial