Monza test - day one: 1 September.

Ferrari team leader Michael Schumacher set the pace today [Wednesday] at Monza in Italy, as testing resumed following the summer ban.

All ten teams took the opportunity to test, meaning it was a packed circuit, with some 18 drivers on track throughout the day. Schumacher completed 77 laps following his second place finish at the Belgian GP, his best a 1min 20.187secs effort.

Rubens Barrichello was next up in the sister F2004, the Brazilian only fractionally slower than his team-mate, as the Scuderia's dominance showed no sign of faltering, with both cars nearly a second up on the third best time, that of Anthony Davidson, a 1min 21.049secs in the BAR-Honda 006.

The Briton, along with team-mate Takuma Sato, who ended the day fourth fastest, spent the early part of the session perfecting a basic balance for the fast Italian circuit, before moving on to separate programmes later on. Davidson started an aero test designed to evaluate both front and rear wing choices, while Sato worked on tyre specifications for the Monza race in just under a fortnight's time. A gearbox change for the Japanese driver was the only setback during the day.

Juan Montoya took fifth for Williams with Fernando Alonso completing the top six with the fastest of the Renaults. The Spaniard, like team-mate Jarno Trulli, suffered from electrical problems during the morning, which slightly disrupted both drivers' programmes.

"In spite of several small niggles during running this morning, we completed a successful first day of running at Monza," commented chief test engineer, Christian Silk. "Both drivers quickly settled back in to running the car in its low-downforce configuration, and the Monza-specific aero package performed as expected. The engine reliability was encouraging, and we have made good progress with the tyre programme, giving us a solid base for continuing our work tomorrow."

Following the news that Ralf Schumacher would not be making his anticipated return to the cockpit after injury, Williams had both Montoya and Antonio Pizzonia on duty, with the Colombian working on tyre constructions, and his Brazilian team-mate on aerodynamic components, brakes and rear tyre constructions.

"We had some good running today with Juan Pablo and Antonio completing 93 and 83 laps respectively," test manager Tim Newton told the team's official website, "Both cars were on a similar programme and tested some new aero parts, tyres and brakes. We have more work to do, but we are satisfied with what we have achieved today."

Christian Klien, fresh from scoring his first points in F1 was seventh, while McLaren's David Coulthard headed Pizzonia and Sauber's Giancarlo Fisichella in the top ten.

Sauber started its three-day test with Fisichella covering 90 laps in the sole chassis. The Italian is scheduled to continue on home soil tomorrow [Thursday] before handing over to team-mate Felipe Massa on Friday.

"This week, our main target is working on our low downforce level in preparation to the Italian Grand Prix here at Monza next weekend," confirmed race engineer Giampaolo Dall'Ara, "In the course of this, we concentrated today on assessing Bridgestone tyre compound specifications which we plan to validate with longer runs tomorrow. As Monza is very hard on brakes, we ran brake tests today, too."

Minardi made a rare visit to a group test, running two cars for Bas Leinders and Gianmaria Bruni, who spent the first day of three assessing new chassis set-ups and aerodynamic components, as well as a revised specification for the Cosworth CR3L engine. Regular Friday tester Leinders handled driving duties during the morning session, with Bruni taking over after lunch.

"Things went very well today," Leinders commented, "We tried some new mechanical settings, aimed at optimising the aerodynamic performance of the car, and I had almost three hours of running this morning. There were no major problems, and we gathered some valuable data, which is likely to be of use after the Monza race. The test also gave me a good chance to gain experience of driving our car in low-downforce configuration, which is the normal set-up here at Monza."

A fresh engine was fitted prior to the start of the afternoon session, when Bruni launched into a tyre evaluation programme with Bridgestone. The two drivers completed a combined total of 377km. Bruni will continue the programme on Thursday morning, before handing over to team mate Zsolt Baumgartner.

"We ran Bas this morning, carrying out normal aero testing and set-up work, and then changed the car over for Gimmi and continued with the set-up programme," confirmed senior engineer Andy Tilley, "He also worked on tyre evaluation and brake material testing. We'd particularly like to extend our thanks to Bridgestone, for making the test tyres available to us here in Monza."

"It was a good opening day to the test," Bruni concluded, "We had a small problem with the brakes early on, but that was sorted, and then we spent some very useful time testing different Bridgestone tyre compounds. My quickest lap was reasonable, but it will be better tomorrow. We'll do another 30 or 35 laps in the morning, and focus on our race set-up for Monza next week."

Despite assurances that it was not planning to advance the F2004 before the end of the season, Ferrari continued its preparations for the final four races of the year by running at Fiorano as well as Monza. Test driver Luca Badoer was at the wheel, working on a Bridgestone tyre development programme. Badoer completed a total of 137 laps.

Testing continues at Monza tomorrow [Thursday].

Leading times: day one - Monza.

1. Michael Schumacher Ferrari-Ferrari 1min 20.187secs 77 laps B
2. Rubens Barrichello Ferrari-Ferrari 1m 20.240s 90 laps B
3. Anthony Davidson BAR-Honda 1m 21.049s 111 laps M
4. Takuma Sato BAR-Honda 1m 21.458s 94 laps M
5. Juan Montoya Williams-BMW 1m 21.654s 90 laps M
6. Fernando Alonso Renault-Renault 1m 21.702s 110 laps M
7. Christian Klien Jaguar-Cosworth 1m 21.752s 59 laps M
8. David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 1m 21.826s 101 laps M
9. Antonio Pizzonia Williams-BMW 1m 21.856s 80 laps M
10. Giancarlo Fisichella Sauber-Petronas 1m 22.013s 90 laps B
11. Olivier Panis Toyota-Toyota 1m 22.100s 87 laps M
12. Jarno Trulli Renault-Renault 1m 22.300s 65 laps M
13. Alex Wurz McLaren-Mercedes 1m 22.379s 93 laps M
14. Mark Webber Jaguar-Cosworth 1m 22.381s 82 laps M
15. Ryan Briscoe Toyota-Toyota 1m 22.764s 52 laps M
16. Giorgio Pantano Jordan-Ford 1m 23.399s 77 laps B
17. Gianmaria Bruni Minardi-Cosworth 1m 23.449s 29 laps B
18. Bas Leinders Minardi-Cosworth 1m 24.441s 34 laps M

B - denotes Bridgestone tyres.
M - denotes Michelin tyres.

All times unofficial - courtesy of Renault.

Comparative lap times:

Italian GP 2003:

Fastest lap: Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1min 21.832secs Pole position: Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1min 20.963secs