Practice 1: Schuey tops

Schumacher didn't hang around in the morning session and was soon well under last year's pole position time of his brother Ralf. His fastest time of the session was 1m14.013s, 0.278s clear of Barrichello.

Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn said of the session: "Rubens and Michael tried the two different compounds available to us and set very similar times. The tyres look okay, but the track hasn't got a lot of grip yet. You never know how this place is going to go, whether it will favour us or the Michelin chaps."

The anticipated charge of BAR-Honda took a while to emerge, and once again it was its Friday tester Davidson who led the way. His 1m14.519s was half a second off Schumacher's best, however.

Another Friday tester, Toyota's Ricardo Zonta, was a surprise fourth fastest, the Brazilian outpacing Monaco GP winner Jarno Trulli and his Renault team-mate Fernando Alonso.

Jenson Button was seventh fastest , ahead of Williams duo Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher, while Olivier Panis rounded out the top 10 in the second Toyota.

The McLarens continue to struggle: Kimi Raikkonen was 13th and David Coulthard 16th. Nurburgring hero Takuma Sato was only 14th fastest in his BAR.

Bas Leinders (Minardi) and Bjorn Wirdheim (Jaguar) hit mechanical trouble during the session, while Giorgio Pantano (Jordan) missed the session due to a dispute with his management.