Sunday Warm-Up - German GP

A cacophony of klaxons heralded the arrival of German Michael Schumacher on track for Sunday's morning warm-up, and the newly crowned World Champion gave his vocal fans hope of a home victory at Hockenheim by topping the times in the half-hour session.

Schumacher will start the German Grand Prix from pole position, and as the temperature built with the sun burning down from cloudless skies on the newly re-developed Hockenheim circuit, the local hero prepared himself well for another Schumacher success.

Brazilian Rubens Barrichello was second in the second Ferrari despite being faced with extra work in the Sunday morning session after being handed the T-car for the first time this season, as the team try to help him claim runner-up spot in the Championship.

Schumacher went off track twice at turn 12 but still finished more than half a second faster than teammate Barrichello, with a best lap of 1:16.726.

Italian Giancarlo Fisichella, who will start the race from the third row for Jordan-Honda, showed his car may be competitive in race trim by finishing third, just five hundredths of a second slower than Barrichello.

It was a good morning for the Honda-powered runners, with Frenchman Olivier Panis fourth in the British American Racing Honda and Japanese driver Takuma Sato fifth in the second Jordan.

German Nick Heidfeld was sixth for Sauber, still inside one second of Schumacher's fastest time, while Briton David Coulthard was seventh in the first of the McLaren-Mercedes.

Schumacher's fellow front-row man, his brother Ralf, was eighth fastest for Williams-BMW with teammate Juan Pablo Motoya tenth, sandwiching ninth-placed Finn Kimi Raikkonen, in the second McLaren-Mercedes.

German Heinz-Harald Frentzen, who will return to the grid after his Arrows team failed to qualify for the French Grand Prix last weekend, spun his car into the gravel at turn three and had to be pushed back onto the track before returning to the pits.

Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher also spun, while Montoya, Raikkonen, Allan McNish, Pedro de la Rosa and Jacques Villeneuve all had off-track excursions.

Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 1:16.726 214.613 km/h 13 2. Barrichello Ferrari (B) 1:17.240 + 0.514 16 3. Fisichella Jordan Honda (B) 1:17.290 + 0.564 17 4. Panis BAR Honda (B) 1:17.326 + 0.600 12 5. Sato Jordan Honda (B) 1:17.544 + 0.818 13 6. Heidfeld Sauber Petronas (B) 1:17.711 + 0.985 12 7. Coulthard McLaren Mercedes (M) 1:17.880 + 1.154 8 8. R.Schumacher Williams BMW (M) 1:17.893 + 1.167 14 9. Raikkonen McLaren Mercedes (M) 1:17.963 + 1.237 10 10. Montoya Williams BMW (M) 1:17.972 + 1.246 8 11. Massa Sauber Petronas (B) 1:18.033 + 1.307 12 12. Bernoldi Arrows Cosworth (B) 1:18.226 + 1.500 12 13. Trulli Renault (M) 1:18.295 + 1.569 14 14. Irvine Jaguar Cosworth (M) 1:18.348 + 1.622 14 15. de la Rosa Jaguar Cosworth (M) 1:18.420 + 1.694 11 16. Salo Toyota (M) 1:18.653 + 1.927 13 17. Villeneuve BAR Honda (B) 1:18.765 + 2.039 13 18. Button Renault (M) 1:18.791 + 2.065 13 19. McNish Toyota (M) 1:19.318 + 2.592 9 20. Frentzen Arrows Cosworth (B) 1:19.910 + 3.184 10 21. Webber Minardi Asiatech (M) 1:20.158 + 3.432 14 All Timing Unofficial