MELBOURNE -- Formula One champion Michael Schumacher showed that last year's Ferrari was still the car to beat with the fastest lap in the opening free practice session of 2002.

The German, who has won the season-opening Australian Grand Prix for the last two years, fired up his campaign for a record-equalling fifth world title with a strong statement of intent in the same Ferrari model he used last season.

	Water sprays up from Michael Schumacher's Ferrari during Friday's first practice for Sunday's Australian Grand Prix.

His fastest lap of one minute 27.276 seconds was 0.523 quicker than his second-placed Brazilian teammate Rubens Barrichello and less than half a second outside the time he set to seize pole position last year.

Ferrari was forced to use last year's car because of concerns about the reliability of its new model but the result was still the same.

"We are more confident than before arriving here but I am not over confident because a lot can change between today and Saturday," Schumacher said. "I am a little bit surprised about the gap to the other teams but, as usual, you can never be sure about what fuel loads teams are running."

Ferrari boss Jean Todt said he was delighted with the team's start to the season but warned about being too confident.

"It's back to business as usual ... but lap times only tell part of the story," Todt said. "What we can see is that tomorrow's pole position time should be quicker than last year's."

The two Williams cars were third and fourth fastest but both were more than a second behind the slower Ferrari.

Schumacher's younger brother Ralf was third fastest overall in 1:28.821 with his Williams teammate, Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya, 0.049 behind in fourth place.

"What we did learn today, unfortunately, is that Ferrari are again in a class of their own," team boss Frank Williams said.

McLaren toils
Although the teams were testing different set-ups in free practice, the big surprise was that the Mercedes-powered McLarens were left way down the order.

Last year's runner-up David Coulthard was 11th with a best time of 1:30.312 after experiencing problems with his left rear wheel, while his new Finnish teammate Kimi Raikkonen was seventh.

But Raikkonon said the team had used the first day to experiment with different race set-ups and there was no need to panic.

"We had a few minor problems and like most teams we have a completely new car, so we just need to familiarise ourselves with how it works at this particular track," he said.

German Nick Heidfeld, one of two drivers to be fined for exceeding the pit lane speed limit, put in a surprisingly strong showing in the Sauber by setting the fifth fastest time on his 30th and final practice lap, while Finn Mika Salo gave newcomers Toyota great cause for optimism with the sixth best time.

Toyota wasted little time making its track debut after a 10-year dream finally came to fruition, accelerating on to the Albert Park circuit as soon as the lights turned green in the first of two hour-long practice sessions.

"The practice went as we expected really," Salo said. "We had no problems with the car and it was quite a motivating day."

Light rain fell during both sessions but the track was mostly dry for the first workout of the new season, which was relatively incident-free.

Several cars, including both Ferraris, made unscheduled excursions into the gravel traps and the caution flag was displayed during each session. But there were no serious incidents or crashes.

Brazil's Felipe Massa was the best of the four rookies in the field, setting the eighth fastest time in his Sauber while Japan's Takuma Sato was 13th, Briton Allan McNish 16th and Australia's Mark Webber 20th.

Webber's Malaysian teammate Alex Yoong, making his first appearance at Albert Park after joining Minardi for the final three races last year, was the slowest of the 22 drivers, finishing more than 16 seconds behind Schumacher.