Saturday First Free Practice - Monaco GP

Brazilian Rubens Barrichello once again out-paced his teammate Michael Schumacher, as he set the fastest time in the opening practice session on Saturday morning at the sunny Monaco circuit.

Barrichello's late lap jumped him ahead of Schumacher, who is bidding to secure a record-equalling sixth Monaco victory. Williams-BMW driver Juan Pablo Montoya claimed third, but he was more than a second slower than the lead Ferrari.

The impressively performing Renault duo of Italian Jarno Trulli and Briton Jenson Button, who led the times for much of the 45-minute session, claimed fourth and fifth respectively.

Ralf Schumacher secured the sixth fastest time in the second Williams-BMW, while Finn Kimi Raikkonen and Briton David Coulthard did their best to boost the hopes of McLaren-Mercedes by claiming seventh and eighth fastest times.

German Heinz-Harald Frentzen was ninth for Arrows, and Italian Giancarlo Fisichella, of Jordan-Honda, completed the top ten.

The two Toyota cars were leading the field with 15 minutes gone as Scot Allan McNish continued his form from Thursday practice by leading Finnish team-mate Mika Salo. But they ended up 15th and 13th respectively.

Button's lap of one minute and 19.640 seconds kept him ahead of the field for much of the session but he was finally overhauled by Schumacher, Barrichello, Montoya and Trulli in the dying minutes of the session.

The drivers were clearly being careful not to hit the barriers and the only incidents in the session were from Webber and McNish, who both overshot the corner at Ste Devote but missed the barriers and were able to continue.

Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Barrichello Ferrari (B) 1:18.385 154.775 km/h 20 2. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 1:18.471 + 0.086 25 3. Montoya Williams BMW (M) 1:19.558 + 1.173 14 4. Trulli Renault (M) 1:19.635 + 1.250 10 5. Button Renault (M) 1:19.640 + 1.255 13 6. R.Schumacher Williams BMW (M) 1:19.746 + 1.361 13 7. Raikkonen McLaren Mercedes (M) 1:19.988 + 1.603 19 8. Coulthard McLaren Mercedes (M) 1:20.020 + 1.635 16 9. Frentzen Arrows Cosworth (B) 1:20.330 + 1.945 20 10. Fisichella Jordan Honda (B) 1:20.353 + 1.968 16 11. Heidfeld Sauber Petronas (B) 1:20.510 + 2.125 13 12. Panis BAR Honda (B) 1:20.612 + 2.227 20 13. Salo Toyota (M) 1:20.834 + 2.449 14 14. Sato Jordan Honda (B) 1:20.853 + 2.468 20 15. McNish Toyota (M) 1:20.876 + 2.491 17 16. Villeneuve BAR Honda (B) 1:21.437 + 3.052 23 17. Massa Sauber Petronas (B) 1:21.641 + 3.256 14 18. Irvine Jaguar Cosworth (M) 1:21.884 + 3.499 12 19. Bernoldi Arrows Cosworth (B) 1:21.918 + 3.533 17 20. Webber Minardi Asiatech (M) 1:22.100 + 3.715 18 21. de la Rosa Jaguar Cosworth (M) 1:22.879 + 4.494 19 22. Yoong Minardi Asiatech (M) 1:24.383 + 5.998 20 All Timing Unofficial