Best time on Friday 99' - Ralf Schumacher - 1:24.507

60 min: Session ends with Rubens Barrichello fastest for the day ahead of Michael Schumacher and Jarno Trulli. Mika Hakkinen, David Coulthard and Eddie Irvine make the top 6.

59 min: Eddie Irvine improves into 6th position.

57 min: The times are getting closer with 1 second separating the top 8 and 2 seconds separating the top 17!

57 min: Eddie Irvine re-enters the top 10 in 9th place.

55 min: Gaston Mazzacane spins out just after improving his time!.

54 min: 6 minutes remaining in the session. Some drivers might go out on new tyres and post fast times!

50 min: Top 10 - Barrichello, M Schumacher, Trulli, Hakkinen, Coulthard, de la Rosa, Diniz, Verstappen, Salo and Button.

50 min: Mika Hakkinen moves into 4th place less than half a second slower than Barrichello.

48 min: Jenson Button moves into 10th place.

46 min: Ralf Schumacher moves into 21st from 22nd while team-mate Jenson Button moves into 11th.

44 min: Marc Gene moves into 11th place just behind Eddie Irvine.

42 min: Eddie Irvine improves but stay in 10th place. Barrichello goes out on the track.

40 min: The order is fairly static. The top 10 - Barrichello, M Schumacher, Trulli, Coulthard, de la Rosa, Diniz, Hakkinen, Verstappen, Salo and Irvine.

36 min: The top 6 are within 1 second, Mika Hakkinen in 7th is just over a second slower than Barrichello. Jos Verstappen improves to 8th.

34 min: Top 6 remains Barrichello, M Schumacher, Trulli, Coulthard, de la Rosa and Diniz.

30 min: Not much improvements on times in the last 10 minutes as it appears that the teams are practicing different race setups.

27 min: Ralf Schumacher goes out on track but is still struggling and is 22nd and last!

25 min: Top 10 - Barrichello, M Schumacher, Trulli, Coulthard, de la Rosa, Diniz, Hakkinen, Salo, Verstappen and Irvine.

22 min: Mika Hakkinen retakes 7th place from Salo!. Hakkinen is now 1.044 seconds slower than Barrichello.

20 min: Mika Salo retakes 7th place from Hakkinen. Ralf Schumacher is still in last place!

18 min: Mika Hakkinen improves slightly to 7th place still a lot slower than Barrichello.

16 min: Mika Hakkinen sets the 8th fastest time on his first timed lap of the day. 1.423 seconds behind Barrichello.

14 min: Top 6 - Barrichello, M Schumacher, Trulli, Coulthard, de la Rosa and Diniz.

12 min: David Coulthard is off and into the gravel trap. Session over for him. Alexander Wurz stops at the exit of Parabolica.

10 min: Michael Schumacher goes second just 0.060 seconds behind Rubens Barrichello. Eddie Irvine improves to 12th from 17th!

8 min: Jean Alesi pits after slowing down suffering a mechanical problem. Pedro Diniz improves from 11th to 6th!

7 min: Mika Salo improves further to 7th while Rubens Barrichello and Jarno Trulli take to the track.

5 min: Michael Schumacher improves his time but is still in 3rd place while Jean Alesi improves from 20th to 19th!

4 min: Mika Salo is the first to improve his time moving into 9th place from 14th in the 1st session. Mika Hakkinen pits after his installation lap.

2 min: Mika Hakkinen goes out on the track for the first time today. Michael Schumacher also takes to the track.

1 min: Several cars go out including the 2 Prosts and Jos Verstappen.

The lap times set so far are not much slower than last year's lap times despite the slower first chicane indicating that the cars appear to be a lot faster on this track compared to last year - Session underway.

Rubens Barrichello was the fastest man on the track in the first session ahead of Jarno Trulli and Michael Schumacher. Mika Hakkinen did not set a time - Session starts in 3 minutes.

2nd Practice session to start in 5 minutes. Weather conditions sunny and a temperature of 26 degrees.