Schumacher Rues Poor Weather

Championship leader Michael Schumacher rued the poor weather in today's opening practice sessions for the French Grand Prix.

The Ferrari drivers were the only ones to beat the showers in the opening session, with Brazilian Rubens Barrichello clocking the day's fastest time of 1:15.487 early in the first hour before the clouds broke and the track got very wet.

Six-times World Champion Schumacher was second quickest, 0.226 slower than Barrichello, but the times meant little. In the second session Schumacher finished fifth.

"A rather different Friday to normal and we were not able to run much because of the weather," said Schumacher at the end of the day. "We decided there was little point in running in the wet as the forecast is for dry weather over the next two days.

"We preferred to only go out in the dry and we did manage to sort out the car a little bit. But to be honest, I did not get much of a feeling as to how it is going."

Barrichello, meanwhile, was down in 10th place in second practice after completing just five laps.

"It was not a difficult day because the weather meant we did very few laps," said the Brazilian. "The car was okay this morning and in the second session I only went out on used tyres so it is hard to have an impression of how the car is performing.

"We will have to wait until tomorrow to define the right car set-up and tyre choice."