De la Rosa sets early Imola pace

Pedro de la Rosa set the fastest time in first practice for the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola today as both Jenson Button and Michael Schumacher showed signs of a return to form.

McLaren third driver De la Rosa was fastest with a lap of one minute 21.060 seconds, narrowly faster than Toyota counterpart Ricardo Zonta.

Third drivers have no restriction on engine use so traditionally are able to lap faster in Friday practice.

Button hopes to get his season on track this weekend after BAR-Honda made significant progress in testing following a disastrous start to the season.

The Englishman has yet to finish a race but offered hope of a return to form by claiming third place on the track where he took his first-ever pole position last season.

World champion Schumacher has just two points to his name after three races following his retirement in Bahrain and he is keen to prove a point on Ferrari’s home ground this weekend.

The seven-times world champion abandoned his usual approach to Friday practice and spent much of the session on track in a quest to give Ferrari’s home fans some hope of a resurgence on Sunday.

That tactic – a sharp contrast to his usual brief appearance in Friday practice – paid dividends and he set the early standard before settling for fourth.

Christian Klien also has a point to make today after being replaced by Vitantonio Liuzzi in the Red Bull race squad.

The Austrian, who scored three points in his three races before falling victim to Red Bull’s driver rotation policy, registered 20 laps on his way to fifth while the other BAR of Takuma Sato was sixth.

David Coulthard brought his Red Bull home in 13th place. Neither Renault driver clocked a fast lap in the one-hour session, with world championship leader Fernando Alonso and Giancarlo Fisichella preferring to conserve their engines.

De la Rosa, who finished fifth in Bahrain as a stand-in for Juan Pablo Montoya, was demoted this weekend to the role of McLaren third driver, with Alex Wurz favoured in the race seat.

But de la Rosa settled quickly into the role – which he filled in Australia and Malaysia as well – and set the early benchmark.

The Spaniard stayed at the top for 25 minutes before Schumacher went nearly half a second faster despite running slightly wide. A cleaner lap immediately after was even quicker.

Kimi Raikkonen’s first serious effort put him second but McLaren colleague De la Rosa dropped him down a spot when he bettered Schumacher’s lap by 1.646secs.

Button briefly took second place before Zonta relieved him of that spot seconds later as the session reached a climax but no-one could better De la Rosa’s time.