Warm-up: Boost for Barrichello; Schuey fourth

Barrichello, who stopped the clocks at 1m20.680s on his race set-up, headed the McLaren-Mercedes duo of Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard. The Finn set a time of 1m20.901s, with DC managing a 1m21.148s best before pulling off with two minutes of the session remaining.

The Scot's car gave up the ghost exiting the final corner, with the joint world championship leader sensibly moving off the racing line before stopping just after the pits. Mercedes described the problem as a hydraulics failure which shut down all the car's vital systems - what it also did was send out huge clouds of smoke from the back of the MP4-16. But with four hours until this afternoon's race, panic wasn't an emotion permeating the Woking camp.

Schumacher's 1m21.211s best lap put him one place ahead of Olivier Panis's BAR, the best of the Honda quartet, with Heinz-Harald Frentzen's Jordan in sixth, Jarno Trulli's Jordan in eighth and Jacques Villeneuve's BAR in ninth putting all the Japanese-powered machines in the top 10.

Ralf Schumacher was best of the Michelin runners, putting his Williams-BMW seventh, but with Nick Heidfeld's Sauber in 10th, it was a virtual lock-out for Bridgestone's rubber.

Juan Pablo Montoya put the second Williams in 11th, with Kimi Raikkonen's Sauber 12th, one spot ahead of Jos Verstappen's Arrows.

Eddie Irvine was best of the Jaguars in 14th and he was followed by Jenson Button's Benetton-Renault - somewhat loftier heights than of late for the struggling squad.

Luciano Burti found himself back to reality in the 21st spot, beaten to the wooden spoon position only by Tarso Marques' Minardi.

Most drivers took the opportunity to try at least one practice start with launch control (although Williams and BMW are electing not to use the system at this race), and we are now just hours away from the first Grand Prix since the end of 1993 in which launch control and traction control will legally (and we stress the legally...) have a say in the final outcome. Tyre wear will also be vital, with most teams set for a two-stop strategy on the abrasive Barcelona surface.

For full warm-up results, click here.