Friday Second Free Practice - Austrian GP

Newly re-signed Ferrari star Rubens Barrichello continued his buoyant start to the Austrian Grand Prix weekend by finishing fastest in Friday practice ahead of his World Champion teammate Michael Schumacher.

The Brazilian, who announced on Thursday that he will remain with the Italian team for two more years, proved he is ready to beat the dominant Schumacher by setting a time of 1:10.549 as the times around the A1-Ring continued to tumble.

Schumacher was just three hundredths of a second behind Barrichello as Ferrari took their second one-two finish of the day after Schumacher had led Barrichello in the morning practice.

Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya, however, proved that his Williams-BMW team could challenge the might of Ferrari in the sunny Styrian hills this weekend when he claimed the third fastest time, just 0.064 seconds shy of Barrichello.

Finn Kimi Raikkonen, of McLaren, was only one tenth of a second back while the surprise of the day was Scot Allan McNish, who claimed the fifth fastest time for newcomers Toyota despite a gentle spin early in the session.

Enrique Bernoldi finished a competitive sixth for Arrows but he also slithered off the track late in the session. He was just ahead of the seventh-placed Jaguar of Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa.

Olivier Panis, of British American Racing, finished eighth fastest, one place ahead of Briton David Coulthard, who was more than eight tenths of a second off the pace with Jordan's Takuma Sato, of Japan, rounding out the top ten.

German Ralf Schumacher, of Williams-BMW was only 12th fastest and the normally competitive Renault cars of Jenson Button and Jarno Trulli failed to shine on the short track and finished 14th and 17th respectively.

The session was full of incidents, with nine cars having off-track excursions in the first half hour. Giancarlo Fisichella and Nick Heidfeld were the only unlucky ones who failed to continue and missed the rest of the session.

Even champion Schumacher lost control of his Ferrari at turn two, but he managed to continue as did his brother Ralf, who had two spins in what seemed to be a difficult session for the newly-blonde star.

Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Barrichello Ferrari (B) 1:10.549 220.749 km/h 39 2. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 1:10.579 + 0.030 44 3. Montoya Williams BMW (M) 1:10.613 + 0.064 45 4. Raikkonen McLaren Mercedes (M) 1:10.657 + 0.108 39 5. McNish Toyota (M) 1:11.140 + 0.591 44 6. Bernoldi Arrows Cosworth (B) 1:11.244 + 0.695 28 7. de la Rosa Jaguar Cosworth (M) 1:11.336 + 0.787 40 8. Panis BAR Honda (B) 1:11.382 + 0.833 66 9. Coulthard McLaren Mercedes (M) 1:11.416 + 0.867 45 10. Sato Jordan Honda (B) 1:11.537 + 0.988 42 11. Irvine Jaguar Cosworth (M) 1:11.608 + 1.059 43 12. R.Schumacher Williams BMW (M) 1:11.652 + 1.103 46 13. Frentzen Arrows Cosworth (B) 1:11.743 + 1.194 29 14. Button Renault (M) 1:11.770 + 1.221 47 15. Massa Sauber Petronas (B) 1:12.013 + 1.464 50 16. Heidfeld Sauber Petronas (B) 1:12.023 + 1.474 28 17. Trulli Renault (M) 1:12.155 + 1.606 47 18. Fisichella Jordan Honda (B) 1:12.193 + 1.644 26 19. Salo Toyota (M) 1:12.375 + 1.826 48 20. Yoong Minardi Asiatech (M) 1:12.564 + 2.015 52 21. Villeneuve BAR Honda (B) 1:12.574 + 2.025 44 22. Webber Minardi Asiatech (M) 1:13.219 + 2.670 47 All Timing Unofficial