Saturday First Free Practice

German Michael Schumacher demonstrated his dominance at the A1-Ring on Saturday morning when he became the first driver this weekend to break the 70 seconds barrier, in practice for Sunday's Austrian Grand Prix.

The dominant World Champion beat his closest rival, teammate Rubens Barrichello, by six tenths of a second, as the Ferrari cars dominated again and out-paced their nearest competitors, McLaren, by more than 1.5 seconds.

Schumacher needs to win on Sunday to complete an astonishing win record that has so far seen him take victories at every other circuit on the calendar. And he put in a polished performance in the opening session of the day to post a time of 1:09.001 seconds - more than half a second faster than the pole position time he set last year.

Barrichello could not match the pace of his teammate and had to settle for second, but both Ferrari drivers managed to improve their times in the dying minutes and move well ahead of their closest rivals.

With 15 minutes to go, the McLaren pair of Kimi Raikkonen and David Coulthard had been on top of the times, with Finn Raikkonen leading Briton Coulthard after trading times at the sharp end for a change.

But the Finnish youngster was left trailing in Ferrari's wake by the end of the session, and finished third, an astonishing 1.592 seconds slower than the impressive Schumacher.

German Heinz-Harald Frentzen posted a late time to claim fourth, ahead of Brazilian Felipe Massa, who was fifth for Sauber, Coulthard's McLaren in sixth, and the other Sauber, of Nick Heidfeld, seventh.

Olivier Panis was eighth for British American Racing, while Jenson Button improved on his disappointing performance in Friday practice to move into the top ten with a lap of 1:10.872 that put him in ninth, one ahead of the Arrows of Enrique Bernoldi.

Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 1:09.001 225.701 km/h 24 2. Barrichello Ferrari (B) 1:09.607 + 0.606 15 3. Raikkonen McLaren Mercedes (M) 1:10.593 + 1.592 11 4. Frentzen Arrows Cosworth (B) 1:10.764 + 1.763 14 5. Massa Sauber Petronas (B) 1:10.765 + 1.764 11 6. Coulthard McLaren Mercedes (M) 1:10.795 + 1.794 11 7. Heidfeld Sauber Petronas (B) 1:10.818 + 1.817 14 8. Panis BAR Honda (B) 1:10.830 + 1.829 24 9. Button Renault (M) 1:10.872 + 1.871 13 10. Bernoldi Arrows Cosworth (B) 1:10.942 + 1.941 14 11. Fisichella Jordan Honda (B) 1:11.248 + 2.247 17 12. Montoya Williams BMW (M) 1:11.250 + 2.249 19 13. Sato Jordan Honda (B) 1:11.355 + 2.354 16 14. Trulli Renault (M) 1:11.401 + 2.400 13 15. Salo Toyota (M) 1:11.422 + 2.421 14 16. McNish Toyota (M) 1:11.430 + 2.429 14 17. R.Schumacher Williams BMW (M) 1:11.663 + 2.662 20 18. Villeneuve BAR Honda (B) 1:11.795 + 2.794 17 19. Irvine Jaguar Cosworth (M) 1:11.879 + 2.878 15 20. de la Rosa Jaguar Cosworth (M) 1:12.274 + 3.273 13 21. Webber Minardi Asiatech (M) 1:13.744 + 4.743 17 22. Yoong Minardi Asiatech (M) 1:13.955 + 4.954 19 All Timing Unofficial