Schumacher fastest in first practice

Michael Schumacher continued to show signs of a Ferrari revival by setting the fastest time in this morning’s first practice session for the San Marino Grand Prix.

The world champion, who has just two points from three races after a terrible start to the season, was comfortably quickest in the first of two 45-minute sessions this morning prior to qualifying.

Schumacher’s lap of one minute, 21.520 seconds was over a second and a half faster than his nearest challenger, with team-mate Rubens Barrichello giving Ferrari a one-two.

Felipe Massa was on form in his Sauber to take third spot while Kimi Raikkonen was fourth for McLaren. Mark Webber finished fifth in a Williams and debutant Vitantonio Liuzzi sixth for Red Bull.

Jenson Button only clocked up five laps after his impressive pace yesterday and he ended the session 12th for BAR-Honda. David Coulthard was one place better off in his Red Bull after an uneventful session.

With almost 20 minutes gone only Vitantonio Liuzzi had set a lap time but Barrichello went quicker as the halfway point approached.

Liuzzi and Red Bull colleague Coulthard were the most active drivers in a slow session as they attempted to get their cars up to speed.

Schumacher hit the track with 13 minutes to go and immediately bettered his team-mate’s lap time by three seconds.

Narain Karthikeyan provided one of the few moments of interest in a quiet session when he spun his Jordan with eight minutes left.

Soon after, the Imola hills were finally ringing with the sound of Formula One engines when most drivers eventually left their pits to register lap times.

A clutch of drivers moved up the timing sheets but none improved on Schumacher’s time.