Warm-up: Schumacher out front

Like Saturday's qualifying, the warm-up was interrupted by rain, and the teams were faced with a wet Albert Park track and constant drizzle. Schumacher set a best time of 1m41.509s, more than half a second clear of Barrichello.

McLaren's David Coulthard was best of the rest in third place more than two seconds behind Schumacher. Greasy conditions sent the Scotsman over the grass during his nine laps, but he wasn't the only one. Young team mate Kimi Raikkonen also took to the green stuff on his way to fifth fastest and even Schumacher got crossed up in his F2001 on a flying lap.

Ralf Schumacher, who will line up third on the grid for the race behind the two Ferraris, was fourth quickest in his Williams, while team mate Juan Pablo Montoya struggled to get a clear lap in the wet and wound up15th.

New Sauber star Felipe Massa managed to keep it all together and set the sixth fastest time, but as has been the case for most of the weekend, he was closely matched by team mate Nick Heidfeld, who was just one place behind. Giancarlo Fisichella was eighth, Jarno Trulli ninth and British American Racing's Jacques Villeneuve rounded out the top 10.

The drama of the session came just 40 seconds before the chequered flag was waved, when Mika Salo's Toyota swapped ends on the way into the third gear Ascari corner. The Finn's TF102 narrowly avoided Barrichello's Ferrari, glanced the barrier and lost its front wing on the way up an escape road.

The only thing to interrupt the smooth running of Ferrari's warm-up was Schumacher attempting to return to his garage as Barrichello exited his. A collision was avoided, but the incident caused angry gesticulations from the German. Apart from that, the Scuderia look set to continue their dominance in the race come rain or shine.

For full warm up results, click here.