WilliamsF1 5th & 8th in opening Friday practice

Montoya would have an off-track moment at Turn eight, a corner that would catch out several drivers. Apart from this the team would work through their normal programme, looking at the tyres that they would pick to the rest of the weekend.

The session was run under very high temperatures, thirty five degrees plus, and most teams would limit the number of laps that they put on their engines. With the high temperatures there was concerns over engine reliability.

There were also concerns over the performance of the tyres with track temperatures reaching 53°C. it was expected that the Michelin supplied teams would have the upper hand at this circuit but the opening practice would see the Bridgestone supplied Ferrari team top the times. Michael Schumacher would lead team-mate Rubens Barrichello by almost a second, with a time of 1m:34.437.

But behind this pair came a group of Michelin supplied drivers lead by BAR-Honda test driver Anthony Davidson. Next was Toyota's Ricardo Zonta, just ahead of Ralf Schumacher. Ralf was some 1.7 seconds behind his brother's fastest time.