Raikkonen stars again for Michelin.

Ferrari might already have the world championship for drivers in the bag, courtesy of Michael Schumacher's victory in France last weekend, but the Italian team shows no sign of letting up.

Its drivers Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello narrowly outpaced their rivals during the opening day of practice for the German Grand Prix, which is taking place at the drastically revised and shortened Hockenheim circuit.

Schumacher made history by becoming the first Formula One driver officially to complete a timed lap of the track in the morning and at the end of the day he emerged slightly faster than team-mate Rubens Barrichello his 1m 16.08s lap put him just 0.162 seconds clear.

Track conditions proved to be very slippery and many drivers had spins - although French GP sensation Kiki R?ikk?nen wasn't among them. The rising Finnish star - whose place alongside David Coulthard at McLaren in 2003 has been confirmed - proved to be Ferrari's closest challenger and fastest of the Michelin runners.

His Scottish team-mate had a relatively limited amount of track time because a technical problem allowed him to complete only six laps during the morning session, but he was still fourth overall and second fastest of six Michelin runners in the top 10. Ralf Schumacher (Williams-BMW-Michelin) fifth, Eddie Irvine (Jaguar-Cosworth-Michelin) sixth, Juan Pablo Montoya (Williams-BMW-Michelin) seventh and Allan McNish (Toyota-Michelin) ninth were hot on his heels.

Pedro de la Rosa (Jaguar-Cosworth-Michelin, 15th) was best of the remaining Michelin runners, from Mika Salo (Toyota-Michelin, 18th), Jenson Button (Renault-Michelin, 19th), Jarno Trulli (Renault-Michelin, 20th), Mark Webber (Minardi-Asiatech-Michelin, 21st) and Alex Yoong (Minardi-Asiatech-Michelin, 22nd).

De la Rosa's day was interrupted by an engine failure after nine laps and he returned to the circuit only for the final 40 minutes of the afternoon session. Trulli and Yoong missed most of the afternoon after spinning off and being unable to restart. Both Renault drivers complained of excessive understeer that made their cars tricky to drive.