Practice 1: Rubens rules

Excluding the first 20 minutes of the session when his team-mate Schumacher was at the top of the charts and then briefly Sauber's Felipe Massa, Barrichello featured at the top for most of the first session and if he was demoted at any point, he came out fighting, determined to get his name reinstated at the top.

His time, a 1m19.138s, was two seconds quicker than his pole of last year, further indication of the increasing speeds of the F1 chassis and powerplants.

Montoya put in a quick lap towards the end of the session to line up just behind the Ferrari duo, while team-mate Marc Gene was just one tenth off the Colombian in fourth spot.

BAR-Honda's Anthony Davidson took his customary position near the top of the timesheets in fifth place, nearly a second quicker than his team-mates Jenson Button (10th) and Takuma Sato (13th).

McLaren pair David Coulthard and Kimi Raikkonen did not set a time until the last quarter of the session. The Scot immediately made an impression in the new MP4-19B when he came out of the pits, slotting into third spot - he later dropped to sixth while Raikkonen was three places down in ninth.

Sandwiched between the two McLarens was the Sauber duo of Felipe Massa (7th) and Giancarlo Fisichella (8th). The Italian later stopped on track on the start-finish straight with just minutes left of the session.

Renault's Fernando Alonso also came to a halt on track after a troubled first half of the session. The Spaniard ended up 16th quickest while team-mate Jarno Trulli, who was out for the whole session, was only one place ahead of him in 15th.