Schumacher was comfortably quickest around the 4.361km Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, with the 35-year-old German clocking a time of one minute 14.013 seconds, that set in the dying moments of an hour-long run he totally dominated.

As in the current world championship, with Schumacher leading Barrichello by 14 points, the gap to the Brazilian was also significant as the 32-year-old was 0.278 seconds off the pace.

Schumacher’s typically blistering time on a circuit where he has won six times in the past was more than 1.5 seconds quicker than the pole position lap of last year set by brother Ralf in his Williams-BMW.

BAR test driver Anthony Davidson was again a significant third and just over half-a-second behind Schumacher, with team-mates Jenson Button and Takuma Sato down in seventh and 14th.

The Brackley team have left supporters eagerly anticipating a duel with Schumacher by claiming they have made improvements to their Honda engine coming into this race.

But after this session they have either yet to show their full hand, or the changes are not as great as had been hoped as Button was almost two seconds behind Schumacher and Sato more than 2.5 seconds down.

Of greater surprise was that Toyota test driver Ricardo Zonta was fourth quickest, with the Renaults of Jarno Trulli and Fernando Alonso fifth and sixth.

After Button came the Williams duo of Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher, with yet more disappointment for McLaren as Kimi Raikkonen was down in 13th and David Coulthard 16th.