The 31-year-old Scot, still pointless after failing to finish the first two races in his McLaren-Mercedes, finished the opening day just over 0.2secs ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya’s Williams-BMW.

Allan McNish made it a double dose of Scottish joy by clocking the third-fastest time in only his third outing in the Toyota Racing car.

Schumacher, who leads the championship by two points, was half-a-second adrift of Coulthard in the radical F-2002 car, whose arrival on the grid had been eagerly awaited.

But the German could yet be toying with his rivals having been quickest - by just over a second - in the first practice session and could well have been running heavier fuel loads later.

It was an eventful day for Schumacher who had a spin in the first session and twice went off the track after the interval, almost hitting the Jordan of Japanese rookie Takuma Sato as he returned to the circuit after the first hiccup.

Schumacher’s brother Ralf, whose victory in Malaysia last time out forced Ferrari to finally introduce the 2002 car this weekend, was fourth fastest in his Williams.

Finland’s Kimi Raikkonen clocked the sixth quickest time in his McLaren having missed much of the first session after spinning to a stop on the track forcing practice to be halted.

Coulthard also slid into a flower bed in first practice but everything in the garden looked far rosier as the Twynholm-born racer responded in style.

But Coulthard, who celebrated his birthday two days ago, knows he badly needs to repeat last year’s victory on the anti-clockwise Interlagos track to get his title challenge rolling in the right direction.

Rubens Barrichello had a disappointing day in front of his home fans as he spun off in both sessions to wind-up seventh fastest in last year’s Ferrari having been forced to wait another race for the 2002 car because of a lack of spare parts.

Jenson Button clocked the eighth best time in his Renault while Eddie Irvine was 14th for Jaguar Racing.