Practice 1: Ferrari dominates early on

Barrichello found the sweet spot of his Ferrari 2003-GA as the session drew to a close, setting 1m21.044s before going even quicker at 1m21.001s to dictate the pace. Ferrari team-mate Schumacher recovered after going off at the Parabolica on his first flying lap to set the second fastest time, the German lapping in 1m21.152s.

Of the chasing pack, Kimi Raikkonen was 0.317secs in arrears of Barrichello in his McLaren, while Schumacher's closest title rival, Juan Pablo Montoya, was fourth fastest in his Williams-BMW.

David Coulthard was fifth fastest for McLaren, ahead of the impressive Cristiano da Matta's Toyota. Jenson Button was an equally praiseworthy seventh for BAR-Honda, outpacing Hungarian GP winner Fernando Alonso (Renault).

Ralf Schumacher was a tentative ninth on his first session behind the wheel after his big shunt in testing at Monza last week, while Jarno Trulli's Renault rounded out the top 10.

Mark Webber was 11th fastest despite going off at Lesmo 2 in his Jaguar. Olivier Panis was next up in the second Toyota, ahead of Sauber duo Nick Heidfeld and Heinz-Harald Frentzen, the latter suffering a grassy off at Lesmo 1.

BAR's Jacques Villeneuve spun on the exit of the Roggia chicane, right in front of M Schumacher, who was on his fastest lap of the session at the time. Villeneuve was 15th overall, ahead of Justin Wilson (Jaguar) and Giancarlo Fisichella (Jordan).

The Minardis of Jos Verstappen and a troubled Nicolas Kiesa sandwiched Zsolt Baumgartner's Jordan at the tail of the field.