Olivier Panis fastest in opening practice

With the practice run under warm conditions this would be an advantage for the Toyota team as they are Michelin runners, and the French tyres are known to perform really strong in warm weather.

The first driver out would be Toyota's Cristiano da Matta. Following him out would be Ralf, Juan Pablo, Raikkonen and Coulthard. Da Matta would set the first time of the session, a 1m:31.164. This would be quickly passed by Juan Pablo with a lap of 1m:24.65. Ralf was 1.5 slower with Olivier Panis third.

Ferrari's Michael Schumacher would move into second, with a time of 1M:25.091. Michael would quickly beat this time going fastest with a lap of 1m:23.953, 0.112sec faster than Juan Pablo. Ferrari team-mate Rubens Barrichello would seta time of 1m:27.901.

Both Jaguar drivers would take to the track, with Mark Webber going fastest with a lap of 1m:23.617, 0.3sec faster than Michael. Justin Wilson was fourth. Barrichello would move into fifth.

BAR's Jacque Villeneuve would move into tenth but he was 2.7sec behind the fastest times. Team mate Jenson Button was thirteenth. With twenty minutes of the session run Ralf would improve his time to move into sixth, a 1m:25.395. Webber, Michael Schumacher, Juan Pablo, Wilson, Barrichello, Verstappen, Coulthard and Panis were all on track.

After been down in sixteenth Kimi Raikkonen would move into fifth, just behind Justin Wilson. Jordan's Ralph Firman would improve his time to be sixteenth, 2.8 off the pace. Rubens would go fastest with a time of 1m:23.201, nearly half a second up on Webber. For Renault's Jarno Trulli he would pass Barrichello's time to move into first, a lap time of 1m:22.905. Alonso would move into third, 0.3 down on his team-mate.

Panis takes eighth for Toyota with a 1m:24.648. Ralf would improve to fourth with a 1m:23.288. Juan Pablo would improve his time taking the first position with an impressive time of 1m:22.592. Raikkonen and Coulthard would return to the track with Raikkonen improving to be sixth, a 1m:23.532. With fifteen minutes left Trulli would improve his time but remained in second, just 0.073sec slower than Montoya.

Barrichello would go second with 1m:22.594, just 0.002 slower. Ralf would improve his time to be fourth, a lap of 1m:22.757. Toyota's da Matta would jump into an fourth, a 1m:22.700. He was 0.1sec off the pace. But it would be his team-mate Olivier Panis would move go fastest, a 1m:21.770. But it was reported that he was running a low fuel load. In the closing minutes Trulli would go second forcing Juan Pablo down to third.