Practice 1: Rubens shunt stops session

The Ferrari ace ripped the left-rear wheel off his F2002, but walked away from the accident without injury. The car sustained a lot of damage to the left side.

The cause is not clear, although there are some concerns that it may have been a tyre problem. It occurred as he was starting his first flying lap.

Michael Schumacher set the fastest time of the session with a 1m15.188s before Barrichello's shunt. That was enough to hold the top spot until the chequered flag.

Once the session got under way after Rubens' off, Pedro de la Rosa and Eddie Irvine delivered further proof of Jaguar's progress by going second and third fastest respectively. But Giancarlo Fisichella stole some of their thunder by jumping up to second in his Jordan.

His team-mate Takuma Sato looked set to take fifth with two laps that pushed him up the order late in the session. But Juan Pablo Montoya's last lap pushed him back down to sixth at the flag.

Montoya's team-mate Ralf Schumacher went off twice in the session. He reversed into a wall on the infield section with his second spin and his rear wing fell off when he got going again. Schuey Jr was only 17th fastest at the end.

Nick Heidfeld was seventh for Sauber, ahead of Renault's Jenson Button. Fellow Brits David Coulthard and Allan McNish were 10th and 18th respectively.

And Heinz-Harald Frentzen was just outside the top 10 in 11th place on his F1 return with Sauber.