Schumacher expecting 'difficulties' in Spain

Michael Schumacher expects this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix to be a 'difficult' race for his Ferrari team

The former world champion struggled to match the pace of the McLaren drivers during testing in Barcelona last week, although he ended up just 0.12s slower than Mika Hakkinen.

Schumacher did his best time with a low fuel load, while it is thought that Hakkinen did not.

Schumacher said, 'Barcelona is a circuit where aerodynamics are important. McLaren has an advantage here, and perhaps also on the engine side.'

Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn added, 'I think they'll be stronger in Barcelona but, at other races, we should be able to match them.'

McLaren drivers Hakkinen and David Coulthard set the pace on each of the three days of testing but each ran into a number of reliability problems.

Damon Hill set the third fastest time of the test, edging out Coulthard. The Englishman was much happier with his Jordan after trying out significant changes to the car's set-up.

Prost driver Olivier Panis, who went for a time on low fuel and new tyres, was fifth quickest, ahead of Hill's team-mate, Heinz-Harald Frentzen.