Juan Pablo Montoya was just 0.098secs slower in second place for Williams while BAR’s Jenson Button continued his encouraging start to the weekend by claiming third.

Newly-crowned world champion Michael Schumacher was down in seventh but with practice times giving little clue as to a driver’s genuine pace, he will not be concerned ahead of this afternoon’s crucial qualifying session.

Kimi Raikkonen, who won McLaren’s first race of the season two weeks ago in Belgium, was the early pacesetter before Montoya took over at the top of the timing sheets.

The action quietened after home driver Giorgio Pantano and Zsolt Baumgartner suffered a nasty accident at the first chicane nine minutes into the session.

Pantano lost control of his Jordan under braking and spun into Minardi driver Baumgartner, who suffered a similar accident through no fault of his own at Spa-Francorchamps when Button ploughed into him.

Luckily Pantano had slowed sufficiently to avoid a more serious impact, although both cars were put out of action.

The session continued but with dust and debris at the scene, all drivers opted to bide their time and wait for marshalls to clear up.

When practice resumed, Button moved up to second place while Barrichello spun his Ferrari at the troublesome first chicane.

The Brazilian recovered to set the fastest time so far today with just three minutes remaining.

Coulthard’s attempts to move up the order ended in a last-minute spin as the Scot tried to accelerate too quickly out of the first chicane and he ended the session ninth.

Montoya set the fastest time in today’s first practice. The Colombian took the honours by just 0.005seconds from Renault driver Fernando Alonso after setting a lap of 1min 21.700secs.

Montoya’s Williams team-mate Antonio Pizzonia, in his last race weekend before the injured Ralf Schumacher claims back his place, completed the top three.