Practice 1: Schuey wins battle of Ferraris

Schumacher topped the times from his first flying lap and Barrichello was the only man to get anywhere close. In fact the Brazilian knocked Michael off the top with six minutes to go, but the German proved that he still had plenty to give.

Schumacher went fastest with two minutes left, then lowered his mark in the closing seconds to end up 0.4s quicker than Barrichello.

Felipe Massa was a surprise best of the rest in his Sauber. But the Brazilian, whose future at the team is under doubt, blotted his copybook at the end of the session by beaching his car in the gravel after losing it at the chicane. Massa's best time was 1.6s slower than Schuey's.

The Honda-powered cars enjoyed a promising start to the weekend. BAR's Olivier Panis and Jordan's Giancarlo Fisichella traded times within the top four or five throughout the session. But it was the other BAR of Jacques Villeneuve that stole the limelight by jumping up to fourth. Fisichella ended up fifth and Panis sixth.

Both Fisichella and team-mate Takuma Sato had brief offs during the session. Sato ended up 12th fastest.

Ferrari's main rivals Williams and McLaren both failed to shine. Kimi Raikkonen and David Coulthard were seventh and ninth respectively, while Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya were an unrepresentative 10th and 15th.

Schuey Jr had a far from smooth session. Shortly after hitting the track for the first time, he slid off on to the grass at Turn 2, then made another mistake right at the end of the session.

Jarno Trulli made a mess of a practice pitstop. The Renault driver missed his marks when he came in and clobbered his right-front wheel man. The surprised pit crew member was knocked off his feet, but appeared to escape injury.

Minardi's new boy Anthony Davidson made a solid start to his first weekend as a grand prix driver. The 23-year-old notched up 25 laps - more than anyone bar Villeneuve - as he got to know the Hungaroring. He briefly headed team-mate Mark Webber, but the Australian was 0.9s up by the end of the session.

Davidson's hour came to a troubled end when his PS02 suffered a transmission failure, stranding the Briton out on the track as the chequered flag flew. But encouragingly, he was 0.2s within 107 percent of Schumacher's time. If he can do that on Saturday afternoon, Davidson will qualify for his first grand prix.