Schumacher shows the way

World champion Michael Schumacher put his rivals in their place today with a devastating performance in practice for the Monaco Grand Prix.

Having easily set the fastest time in this morning’s first session, Schumacher put in a lap of one minute 14.741 seconds to top the timing sheets in second practice this afternoon.

That scintillating lap was by far the fastest of the day, beating nearest challenger Anthony Davidson by 0.4s and slicing almost half a second off brother Ralf’s pole position time last year, albeit with the help of a revised track lay-out.

BAR test driver Davidson again showed well in practice and he even beat Schumacher’s Ferrari team-mate Rubens Barrichello, denying the Italian team a one-two.

Barrichello was third, with Renault’s Jarno Trulli fourth and Kimi Raikkonen an impressive fifth for struggling McLaren.

Jenson Button took his BAR to sixth place while Scotsman David Coulthard was 11th for McLaren.

Jaguar test driver Bjorn Wirdheim lasted just five minutes of second practice before he clouted a wall, damaging his right rear suspension and ending his session early.

Davidson was – as he has been at most of the grands prix this season – fastest early in the session but Trulli and then Barrichello bettered his time.

The Englishman tried a little too hard midway through the session when he outbraked himself going into the first corner, forcing him to reverse back onto the track.

Raikkonen and Renault’s Fernando Alonso took their turn at the top of the timesheets before Christian Klien completed a miserable day for Jaguar.

With Mark Webber putting out a fire in his Jaguar in first practice and Wirdheim wrecking his car early in second, Klien was the only driver for the Milton Keynes-based team on track in the last half hour today.

He failed to make it to the end though, slamming into the barriers and leaving Jaguar to repair three battered cars tonight.

It was hardly the debut Jaguar had in mind for a car which features a £250,000 (€371,500) diamond in the nose cone.

All four Jaguars at Monaco this weekend have diamonds fitted as part of a sponsorship deal with precious stone dealer Steinmetz.

Button took over top spot as Schumacher pushed too hard at the chicane, briefly losing the back of his Ferrari before bouncing across the kerbs.

Davidson again got his name at the top of the rankings but Schumacher left his best effort until late in the session and went over half a second quicker than anyone else with seven minutes to go.

This morning Schumacher set the quickest time in first practice with a lap of 1min 16.502s, a huge 0.777s quicker than his nearest rival, with the BAR duo of Takuma Sato and Button again looking good.

Sato was second fastest with Button less than a tenth of a second behind after the one-hour session, taking place today because Friday is market day in Monaco and Formula One traditionally enjoys a break.

Coulthard was fifth fastest, just over a second behind Schumacher as the Scotsman looks to improve on a troubled season so far for McLaren.

Davidson was seventh as he continues to catch the eye in the third BAR. He was just 1.289s off Schumacher’s pace on a track renowned as the most difficult on the calendar.