Saturday Second Free Practice - Austrian GP

World Champion Michael Schumacher completed a near perfect preparation prior to qualifying for Sunday's Austrian Grand Prix, when he topped the times with a blistering lap around the A1-Ring in Saturday morning practice.

The fans filling the hills around the sun-soaked circuit witnessed another dominant performance by Schumacher, as the German continued to break the track record and ended with a lap time of 1:08.433.

That time eclipsed his Ferrari teammate Rubens Barrichello's best by more than seven tenths of a second and proved that, despite an off-track excursion at the final corner late in the session, Schumacher is in a league of his own.

German Ralf Schumacher was the closest non-Ferrari driver to his brother's stunning best and ended the session in third, just seven hundredths of a second slower than Barrichello.

Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya made it a Williams-BMW three-four with a late time that pushed him to within one tenth of a second of his teammate Schumacher, while German Heinz-Harald Frentzen boosted Arrows's hopes by setting the fifth fastest time.

Brazilian Felipe Massa, who was unhindered by an earlier trip into the gravel, claimed sixth for Sauber ahead of his German teammate Nick Heidfeld, with Kimi Raikkonen, of McLaren-Mercedes, and the BAR-Hondas of Olivier Panis and Jacques Villeneuve completing the top ten.

There were numerous incidents to make up for a drama-free earlier session, with several of the front runners - including both McLarens, the Williams of Montoya and World Champion Schumacher himself - all having off-track moments.

Jordan's Takuma Sato also had another trip into the gravel, and Alex Yoong of Minardi spun twice and finished at the foot of the timesheet.

Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 1:08.433 227.574 km/h 42 2. Barrichello Ferrari (B) 1:09.146 + 0.713 32 3. R.Schumacher Williams BMW (M) 1:09.216 + 0.783 43 4. Montoya Williams BMW (M) 1:09.288 + 0.855 32 5. Frentzen Arrows Cosworth (B) 1:09.426 + 0.993 25 6. Massa Sauber Petronas (B) 1:09.526 + 1.093 25 7. Heidfeld Sauber Petronas (B) 1:09.592 + 1.159 32 8. Raikkonen McLaren Mercedes (M) 1:09.752 + 1.319 28 9. Panis BAR Honda (B) 1:09.780 + 1.347 48 10. Villeneuve BAR Honda (B) 1:09.873 + 1.440 40 11. McNish Toyota (M) 1:09.972 + 1.539 34 12. Salo Toyota (M) 1:10.004 + 1.571 35 13. Coulthard McLaren Mercedes (M) 1:10.044 + 1.611 28 14. Bernoldi Arrows Cosworth (B) 1:10.090 + 1.657 25 15. Trulli Renault (M) 1:10.143 + 1.710 32 16. Button Renault (M) 1:10.229 + 1.796 33 17. Fisichella Jordan Honda (B) 1:10.470 + 2.037 41 18. Sato Jordan Honda (B) 1:11.016 + 2.583 29 19. de la Rosa Jaguar Cosworth (M) 1:11.057 + 2.624 32 20. Irvine Jaguar Cosworth (M) 1:11.308 + 2.875 34 21. Webber Minardi Asiatech (M) 1:11.991 + 3.558 29 22. Yoong Minardi Asiatech (M) 1:12.334 + 3.901 35 All Timing Unofficial