Wurz Fastest in Practice 1 - Europe

Wurz waited patiently as Schumacher and teammate Rubens Barrichello traded fastest laps and then set a time of 1:31.670 late in the session to go top by 0.908 seconds.

Toyota test driver Ricardo Zonta finished third 1.127 seconds back with Juan Pablo Montoya setting the fourth fastest time with a lap in the closing seconds of the session.

That left Rubens Barrichello in fifth in the second Ferrari with Kimi Raikkonen, the winner of the last two races, sixth in the second McLaren as the Renault and BAR drivers chose not to run a full lap.

German Nick Heidfeld finished seventh fastest for Williams, just ahead of Australian teammate Mark Webber, with Christian Klien ninth for Red Bull and Ralf Schumacher completing the top ten in his Toyota.

The session began under clear blue skies with temperatures of 27 degrees and as usual most of the drivers chose to spend the opening 30 minutes of the session in the shade of the garages.

Christian Klien was the first driver to make a mistake, running off at turn 10 15 minutes into the session then Franck Montagny, who is driving the third Jordan this weekend, hit a bollard in the chicane and damaged his car.

Barrichello led with half the session gone but his teammate Michael Schumacher went fastest with 25 minutes as the Ferrari pair led the running while most of their rivals stayed in their garages.

Klien went off track again in his Red Bull Racing machine, going over the at tarmac run-off at the same place in turn 10, then Montagny made another mistake and went off track at turn one.

Schumacher then cut the chicane slightly and came straight into the pits and with ten minutes left to run only 14 drivers had set a competitive lap time with the remaining 10 still to come out.

Jordan driver Narain Karthikeyan and Sauber's Felipe Massa also went over the kerbs at the chicane and Zonta split the two Ferraris to claim second before Wurz went top with six minutes to go and went even faster at the finish.

Pos  Driver        Team                  Time                  Laps
 1.  Wurz          McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:32.670               18
 2.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari           (B)  1:33.578  +    0.908   10
 3.  Zonta         Toyota            (M)  1:33.726  +    1.056   21
 4.  Montoya       McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:33.873  +    1.203    7
 5.  Barrichello   Ferrari           (B)  1:33.984  +    1.314   11
 6.  Raikkonen     McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:33.988  +    1.318    6
 7.  Heidfeld      Williams-BMW      (M)  1:34.142  +    1.472    5
 8.  Webber        Williams-BMW      (M)  1:34.248  +    1.578    5
 9.  Klien         Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:34.304  +    1.634   19
10.  R.Schumacher  Toyota            (M)  1:35.018  +    2.348   11
11.  Trulli        Toyota            (M)  1:35.212  +    2.542    9
12.  Massa         Sauber-Petronas   (M)  1:36.142  +    3.472    8
13.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:36.413  +    3.743    7
14.  Villeneuve    Sauber-Petronas   (M)  1:36.716  +    4.046    9
15.  Liuzzi        Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:37.129  +    4.459   12
16.  Monteiro      Jordan-Toyota     (B)  1:38.021  +    5.351   19
17.  Albers        Minardi-Cosworth  (B)  1:38.406  +    5.736   15
18.  Karthikeyan   Jordan-Toyota     (B)  1:38.474  +    5.804   16
19.  Friesacher    Minardi-Cosworth  (B)  1:38.538  +    5.868   15
20.  Montagny      Jordan-Toyota     (B)  1:38.725  +    6.055   23
21.  Sato          BAR-Honda         (M)  No Time                 2
22.  Button        BAR-Honda         (M)  No Time                 2
23.  Fisichella    Renault           (M)  No Time                 2
24.  Alonso        Renault           (M)  No Time                 2

All timing unofficial