Saturday First Free Practice - Spanish GP

Ferrari continued to hold their position at the top of the times in Barcelona, when Rubens Barrichello set a time faster than last year's pole to out-pace his World Champion teammate Michael Schumahcer in Saturday's first practice for the Spanish Grand Prix.

In overcast conditions that were seven degrees cooler than the temperatures seen on Friday, Barrichello drove a sensational lap to set a time of 1:18.048, beating Michael Schumacher's previous best by 0.153 seconds.

The Brazilian driver's time was almost half a second faster than Schumacher's best of the session and the pair were once again almost one second faster than their closest rival, this time Briton David Coulthard in the McLaren-Mercedes.

The Williams-BMW drivers Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya saw an improvement in form, after setting only 15th and 17th fastest times on Friday. This time they finished fourth and ninth respectively.

The Sauber pair also showed they are likely to be competitive once again on the Barcelona track, with German Nick Heidfeld just shading his Brazilian teammate Felipe Massa to claim fifth spot.

Finn Kimi Raikkonen ensured both McLarens-Mercedes out-paced the increasingly competitive Renault cars by taking seventh place, but he was just seven thousandths of a second ahead of Briton Jenson Button, in the Renault.

The session was stopped after 17 minutes when the front wing on Australian Mark Webber's Minardi collapsed and became stuck underneath the car, grinding carbon fibre shards over the track on the main straight.

But after an eight-minute break, the cars returned to the track and Barrichello put in his unbeatable lap to throw down the gauntlet to his usually dominant teammate Schumacher.

Jordan-Honda driver Takuma Sato, struggling after missing one of the Friday sessions with a sensor problem, had a minor spin at turn nine, in the same place Scot Allan McNish had lost control of his Toyota earlier. Both drivers continued but finished well down the times in 16th and 21st respectively.

Pos Driver Team Times laps 1. Barrichello Ferrari (B) 1:18.048 218.173 km/h 8 2. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 1:18.434 + 0.386 8 3. Coulthard McLaren Mercedes (M) 1:19.075 + 1.027 7 4. R.Schumacher Williams BMW (M) 1:19.367 + 1.319 7 5. Heidfeld Sauber Petronas (B) 1:19.476 + 1.428 10 6. Massa Sauber Petronas (B) 1:19.535 + 1.487 7 7. Raikkonen McLaren Mercedes (M) 1:19.562 + 1.514 8 8. Button Renault (M) 1:19.567 + 1.519 8 9. Montoya Williams BMW (M) 1:19.574 + 1.526 7 10. Bernoldi Arrows Cosworth (B) 1:19.688 + 1.640 13 11. Panis BAR Honda (B) 1:19.901 + 1.853 10 12. Frentzen Arrows Cosworth (B) 1:19.904 + 1.856 8 13. Villeneuve BAR Honda (B) 1:20.321 + 2.273 12 14. Fisichella Jordan Honda (B) 1:20.474 + 2.426 9 15. Trulli Renault (M) 1:20.614 + 2.566 8 16. Sato Jordan Honda (B) 1:21.072 + 3.024 16 17. Salo Toyota (M) 1:21.133 + 3.085 9 18. de la Rosa Jaguar Cosworth (M) 1:21.251 + 3.203 11 19. Irvine Jaguar Cosworth (M) 1:21.343 + 3.295 14 20. McNish Toyota (M) 1:21.725 + 3.677 6 21. Webber Minardi Asiatech (M) 1:22.152 + 4.104 4 22. Yoong Minardi Asiatech (M) 1:23.061 + 5.013 11 All Timing Unofficial