Schumacher clocked a best time of one minute 15.658seconds to pip team-mate Rubens Barrichello to top spot by 0.375secs.

BAR test driver Anthony Davidson outshone team-mate Button this morning as he continued to impress in the Friday practice sessions.

Davidson was third quickest, almost a second off Schumacher while Button was a further 0.4secs adrift in fifth after just six laps, behind Toyota tester Ricardo Zonta, who took a creditable fourth.

Ralf Schumacher was the quickest Williams driver in first practice in sixth place, with team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya 11th.

McLaren continue to struggle for pace and Kimi Raikkonen just scraped into 10th place, nearly two seconds slower than Schumacher, while team-mate David Coulthard was three places and nearly half a second further back.

Davidson set the pace from the start as the five reserve drivers in Formula One clocked up the bulk of the laps early on.

Davidson survived an over-enthusiastic moment when he ran wide to comfortably set the quickest time of the first 20 minutes as the major players bided their time.

When the big guns finally hit the track, Ralf Schumacher was immediately on the pace as he strives to prove a point after a disappointing start to the season.

Davidson responded though and reclaimed top spot just after the half-hour mark before world champion Michael took just one fast lap to put the young pretender in his place, swiping almost a second off the Englishman’s time.

Barrichello’s first meaningful laps gave Ferrari a clean sweep of the top two positions, although the Brazilian was over a quarter of a second slower than his team-mate.

Button waited until 50 minutes of the hour-long session had passed before first turning a wheel in anger. His first effort was almost 1.5secs down on Schumacher and he could not get closer to the six-time world champion as time ran out.