Schumacher Only Concerned about McLaren's Pace

Championship leader Michael Schumacher admitted after Friday's practice session for his home Grand Prix in Germany that everything had gone according to plan, and as usual dismissed the importance of today's times after finishing in fifth position almost a second behind Jaguar's Eddie Irvine and Williams' Juan Pablo Montoya.

Schumacher, who was back at the wheel of the Ferrari following his heavy crash during testing at Monza last week, claimed he was keeping an eye on the McLarens of rivals David Coulthard and Mika Hakkinen, but was not concerned with Irvine's or Montoya's pace.

"I would say that as far as our lap times are concerned we have to see where McLaren are and we seem to be matching them, so everything is in order," admitted Schumacher. "I do not have a problem in any particular part of the track.

"I don't think today's order means very much, although the cars at the front are doing good times, so maybe they will be a bit higher up the grid than usual after qualifying. As usual the crowd here is a motivating factor."

Brazilian Rubens Barrichello was unable to repeat his early performance today, and after setting the fastest time in the first session, he had to settle for fourth after problems with his car forced him to miss part of the second hour.

Despite the problems, Barrichello was confident for tomorrow's qualifying.

"I was not able to get that much running today, especially in the afternoon," said Barrichello. "In the morning, things went very well and the car was definitely in good shape. Then I had a hydraulic problem in the second hour which cost me the last ten minutes of the session.

"We still have a bit of work to do on defining the ideal set-up, but I am confident for tomorrow."