Schumacher is pushing the limits and he goes well offline at Ascari and is lucky to keep the car away from the barriers. Michael lucky to escape incident as he clipped the kerb on the way into the corner. Coulthard’s day is over very early as he goes off and lightly goes into the tyre barrier. Barrichello is back in the pits after doing a quick lap but not near the time of Schumacher. Michael is continuing to lap after his earlier scare and he shaves more time of his best with a lap of 1m 22.680 seconds. But another lap and another improvement for the German, he is now over 1 second faster than his rivals with a 1.22.477. Schumacher is making the most of the free practice and is putting in plenty of laps and is sending a clear signal that he is out to win this race.

Barrichello is out on track once more and he still remains in last place. He drops his pace to give him some free space on the track then sets off on a flying run. And finally he moves right up the timesheets with a 1.23.065 and into second place behind Michael. Rubens once again however returns to the pit lane as he seems not happy with the car. Schumacher is once more on track already having done 30 laps and he is once again going faster until Alex Yoong spins his Minardi wrecking any chance of a quick lap by Schumacher who has to slow for the yellow flags. Schumacher continues to lap as he awaits the Minardi to be removed from the circuit.

Schumacher once again takes a little more off his best time with a 1.22.433. Barrichello is also back out but so far making no improvement on his earlier best lap. Montoya is once again getting upset as he waves his arms at Fisichella for no real reason but frustration. Barrichello is now setting better times and is getting close to Schumacher a 1.22.664 for the Brazilian has him in the hunt for the top slot. Closing minutes of the session and Barrichello is once again lapping and he makes a slight improvement with a 1.22.658.

So a good Friday the 13th for Ferrari in their home venue. Friday practice is rarely anything to shout about but starting in such a strong position is always a good sign for the remainder of the weekend. It was surprising that Schumacher put in so many laps today but his pace was very quick and he was doing long stints to suggest that Bridgestone once again have a very consistent race tyre here in Monza.

Full Times

1 M. Schumacher Germany Ferrari 1.22.433
2 R. Barrichello Brazil Ferrari 1.22.658
3 K. Räikkönen Finland McLaren 1.23.016
4 E. Irvine Northern Ireland Jaguar 1.23.460
5 J.P. Montoya Colombia Williams 1.23.584
6 M. Salo Finland Toyota 1.23.925
7 R. Schumacher Germany Williams 1.24.115
8 P. De la Rosa Spain Jaguar 1.24.183
9 J. Trulli Italy Renault 1.24.358
10 J. Button England Renault 1.24.396
11 G. Fisichella Italy Jordan 1.24.629
12 J. Villeneuve Canada BAR 1.24.833
13 F. Massa Brazil Sauber 1.24.929
14 T. Sato Japan Jordan 1.24.990
15 O. Panis France BAR 1.25.027
16 D. Coulthard Scotland McLaren 1.25.044
17 N. Heidfeld Germany Sauber 1.25.541
18 A. McNish Scotland Toyota 1.25.546
19 M. Webber Australia Minardi 1.26.162
20 A. Yoong Malaysia Minardi 1.26.365