Saturday First Free Practice - German GP

Michael Schumacher topped the times for Ferrari on Saturday morning in an incident filled first practice that was shortened after two stoppages caused by collisions with a bollard at turn one.

World Champion Schumacher, who is chasing his record-equalling 11th win of the season, set his time of 1:15.066 on the very last lap to push Colombian Williams-BMW driver Juan Pablo Montoya down to second, 0.211 seconds behind.

Schumacher's Brazilian Ferrari teammate Rubens Barrichello finished third with Finn Kimi Raikkonen fourth for McLaren-Mercedes and Briton Jenson Button, who will lose 10 places on the grid after an engine change, in fifth for BAR-Honda.

Frenchman Olivier Panis finished sixth in the new Toyota TF104B machine, which is making its debut this weekend, but his Brazilian teammate Cristiano da Matta could manage only 11th.

Scot David Coulthard finished seventh in the second McLaren, with Brazilian Antonio Pizzonia, who is replacing the injured Ralf Schuamcher, in eighth, and Italians Giancarlo Fisichella, of Sauber, and Renault's Jarno Trulli ninth and tenth respectively.

Ralf Schumacher returned to the Williams-BMW pits for the first time since his accident in the United States Grand Prix in June, which has ruled him out of the last three race weekends, and watched the session from the team garage.

Italian Giorgio Pantano caused the session to be stopped after 16 minutes when he hit a bollard on the kerbs at turn one, snapped the front wing off his Jordan car and careered nose first into a tyre barrier.

The team's test-driver Timo Glock had the same problem at the same part of the track in the first session of the weekend on Friday but he was able to stop his car before it the barriers.

And the bollard struck again just 14 minutes later when Zsolt Baumgartner cut the corner at turn one and sliced off the right hand side of his front wing. This time, the obstruction was not replaced.

The session was shortened to allow it to finish at its normal time after the second stoppage, so the drivers lost a total of 14 minutes of running from the 45-minute session.

But that still left time for another incident, when BAR-Honda driver Takuma Sato went wide on the exit of turn 12 and almost corrected the mistake before spinning into the barriers at turn 13.

Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 1:15.066 11 2. Montoya Williams-BMW (M) 1:15.277 + 0.211 5 3. Barrichello Ferrari (B) 1:15.354 + 0.288 10 4. Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:15.626 + 0.560 6 5. Button BAR-Honda (M) 1:15.839 + 0.773 10 6. Panis Toyota (M) 1:15.882 + 0.816 7 7. Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:15.919 + 0.853 7 8. Pizzonia Williams-BMW (M) 1:16.151 + 1.085 12 9. Fisichella Sauber-Petronas (B) 1:16.232 + 1.166 9 10. Trulli Renault (M) 1:16.334 + 1.268 5 11. da Matta Toyota (M) 1:16.457 + 1.391 8 12. Alonso Renault (M) 1:16.462 + 1.396 5 13. Massa Sauber-Petronas (B) 1:16.532 + 1.466 8 14. Klien Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:16.650 + 1.584 5 15. Webber Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:16.961 + 1.895 7 16. Heidfeld Jordan-Ford (B) 1:17.369 + 2.303 10 17. Bruni Minardi-Cosworth (B) 1:18.198 + 3.132 11 18. Pantano Jordan-Ford (B) 1:18.914 + 3.848 4 19. Baumgartner Minardi-Cosworth (B) 1:21.288 + 6.222 9 20. Sato BAR-Honda (M) No Time 4 All timing unofficial