Saturday First Free Practice - Brazilian GP

Michael Schumacher returned to the top of the times at Interlagos on Saturday morning as he dismissed the McLaren resurgence in rising temperatures during the first practice session before qualifying for the Brazilian Grand Prix.

World Champion Schumacher set the fastest time of the weekend with a 1:13.837 lap, just less than six hundredths of a second slower than his pole position time from last year.

The German, in a new F2002, held the top position through most of the session and after being deposed by Kimi Raikkonen's McLaren seconds before the finish he set another fastest time to return to the top.

Rubens Barrichello, in the old Ferrari, was three and a half tenths slower than his teammate Schumacher in third, with Ralf Schumacher claiming fourth fastest time for Williams.

David Coulthard's performance for McLaren on Friday, in which he set the fastest time of the day, was rapidly forgotten as the Scot dropped to fifth, with Juan Pablo Montoya sixth to ensure the Ferrari, McLaren and Williams cars locked out the top of the times.

Jenson Button was seventh and, as is becoming expected, the fastest of the other teams in his Renault, while the Sauber duo followed behind, with Nick Heidfeld eighth and Felipe Massa ninth, and Jacques Villeneuve completed the top ten for BAR.

There was little incident in the session, with Jordan's Takuma Sato and Arrows' Enrique Bernoldi the only spinners, but Brazilian Bernoldi was fortunate to miss the wall when he spun at turn four.

Pos Driver Team Times 1. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 1:13.837 210.090 km/h 2. Raikkonen McLaren Mercedes (M) 1:13.900 + 0.063 3. Barrichello Ferrari (B) 1:14.189 + 0.352 4. R.Schumacher Williams BMW (M) 1:14.642 + 0.805 5. Coulthard McLaren Mercedes (M) 1:14.673 + 0.836 6. Montoya Williams BMW (M) 1:14.857 + 1.020 7. Button Renault (M) 1:15.014 + 1.177 8. Heidfeld Sauber Petronas (B) 1:15.179 + 1.342 9. Massa Sauber Petronas (B) 1:15.296 + 1.459 10. Villeneuve BAR Honda (B) 1:15.303 + 1.466 11. Trulli Renault (M) 1:15.340 + 1.503 12. Panis BAR Honda (B) 1:15.447 + 1.610 13. Fisichella Jordan Honda (B) 1:15.486 + 1.649 14. Sato Jordan Honda (B) 1:15.641 + 1.804 15. Frentzen Arrows Cosworth (B) 1:15.940 + 2.103 16. Bernoldi Arrows Cosworth (B) 1:16.101 + 2.264 17. de la Rosa Jaguar Cosworth (M) 1:16.447 + 2.610 18. Irvine Jaguar Cosworth (M) 1:16.516 + 2.679 19. Salo Toyota (M) 1:16.526 + 2.689 20. McNish Toyota (M) 1:16.721 + 2.884 21. Webber Minardi Asiatech (M) 1:17.071 + 3.234 22. Yoong Minardi Asiatech (M) 1:17.574 + 3.737 All Timing Unofficial