Practice 3: Easy for Schumacher

The German, who is bidding to claim a record-equalling fifth world drivers' title at Magny-Cours this weekend, spent most of the session sitting at the back of the Ferrari garage talking to team boss Jean Todt.

With 20 minutes to go, Schumacher pulled out of the pitlane and promptly went four tenths quicker than Juan Pablo Montoya's Williams, which had been fastest up to this point. The Ferrari came back out at the end of the session and dipped below the 1m13s mark with apparent ease.

His team-mate Rubens Barrichello also completed just a handful of laps, the Brazilian doing enough to put Ferrari one-two at the top of the times. But Barrichello was a full 0.6s off the pace of Schumacher...

McLaren continued to show strong pace at Magny-Cours as it did yesterday, with Kimi Raikkonen and David Coulthard outpacing the Williams drivers to go third and fourth respectively.

The symmetry of the top six was spoiled by Felipe Massa's Sauber, which edged out Montoya and Ralf Schumacher. While the Ferraris and McLarens sat in the pits for the first half of the session, the Williams duo traded fastest laps, with Montoya proving fastest until Schuey's Ferrari came into play.

But perhaps the most notable aspect of the practice session was the continued absence of Arrows. At the British GP two weeks ago, the troubled team made it out on to the track for Saturday morning's practice after failing to run on Friday. But this time the cars sat in the garage, with the drivers nowhere to be seen. Doubts over the team's participation this weekend are now stronger than ever.