Valencia day 6: Schuey returns

McLaren newboy Kimi Raikkonen set a new record of 1m12.118s on Thursday, and despite never having never driven at the twisty, Spanish track, Schumacher's best effort stopped the clocks at an impressive 1m12.657s.

The Ferrari ace completed 101 laps in his first proper day back behind the wheel despite a brief outing at Fiorano last week.

"It was very nice," said Schumacher. "It was almost like my first day back, even though I just turned up at Fiorano because I was so hot for driving. It [the track] is quite interesting. There are one or two dangerous spots where you go in blind. I just couldn't see and it took a while to get the layout in my head."

The day's drama, however, was provided by the German's Ferrari team mate Rubens Barrichello,who crashed heavily during the morning session. The Brazilian escaped unhurt despite damaging his F2001 enough to warrant a trip back to the team's Maranello base for repairs, (click here, for separate story).

British American Racing's Olivier Panis was second fastest in the new BAR004 ahead of the Williams-BMW of Ralf Schumacher in third. The German concentrated on tyre development while test driver Marc Gene (seventh) worked on the team's all-new BMW engine. Anttonio Poizzonia was sixth in the third FW23.

Jacques Villeneuve's day was brought to a premature end when something broke on his BAR004 and the Brackley-based team did not have the necessary parts to fix it. New test driver Ryo Fukuda had his first run and finished eighth in a 2001-spec car.

Michael Schumacher Ferrari B 1m12.657s 101 laps
Olivier Panis BAR-Honda* B 1m13.412s 102 laps
Ralf Schumacher Williams-BMW M 1m13.533s 73 laps
Rubens Barrichello Ferrari B 1m13.546s 20 laps
Jacques Villeneuve BAR-Honda* B 1m13.556s 71 laps
Antonio Pizzonia Williams-BMW M 1m13.597 62 laps
Marc Gene Williams-BMW M 1m13.990 37 laps
Ryo Fukuda BAR-Honda B 1m15.406s 60 laps

M - Michelin
B - Bridgestone
* - 2002 car