Schumacher sets early pace

Michael Schumacher splashed his way to the fastest lap in today’s first practice session for the Australian Grand Prix as Minardi made their first appearance of the weekend at Albert Park.

Schumacher’s lap of one minute 40.540 seconds was 1.393secs faster than his Ferrari team-mate Rubens Barrichello while McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen was third quickest after a session which saw just 12 drivers set times.