Schumacher Aims to Please Italian Fans

World Champion Michael Schumacher is hoping to put on a good show to please his and his Ferrari team's fans at the Italian Grand Prix.

Showing no signs of slowing up after clinching an unprecedented seventh world title in Belgium, Schumacher returned to the scene of his big crash in testing last week with a time comfortably inside the lap record.

Schumacher was fastest in today's practice at Monza after setting a quickest time of 1:20.526.

"It's always nice to race in front of our 'tifosi' and so I am happy to be back at Monza again after two days of testing last week," said the German, who had the colours of the Italian flag painted on his helmet.

"We hope to put on a good show for all the fans who will be here to celebrate our recent winning of both titles. The colours of the Italian flag on my helmet is a small thank you to Italian Ferrari fans for all their support in the bad times as well as the good."

Schumacher, aiming to score his 13th win of the season, outpaced his teammate Rubens Barrichello in the opening session, but the Brazilian was quicker in the second.

"The fight for first place this weekend will be decided by thousandths of a second," said Barrichello. "From what we have seen today, we seem to be competitive. But we need to work very hard and concentrate to make sure we get the most out of our package.

"The F2004 went quite well in these two hours of free practice, confirming what we found at last week's test. I would like to give our tifosi another opportunity to celebrate on Sunday afternoon."