Schumacher in the hot seat, Webber on fire

Ferrari's six times world champion Michael Schumacher blasted around the Monaco Grand Prix street circuit with the fastest time…

Ferrari's six times world champion Michael Schumacher blasted around the Monaco Grand Prix street circuit with the fastest time, to maintain his stranglehold on this year's Formula 1 season.

Schumacher had no problems, lapping in one minute 14.014 seconds - more than half a second inside the race lap record and more than a second quicker than his brother Ralf's pole position time last year of 1:15.259.

While Brazilian team mate Rubens Barrichello was second quickest in the first session, Italian Jarno Trulli's Renault was closest to Schumacher's pace in the second with a time just 0.002 off the German's.

BAR's Takuma Sato was third fastest on a sunny morning in the Mediterranean principality.

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Australian Mark Webber faces a nervous wait after his Jaguar's engine again caught fire.
 
The Australian had been third fastest in the opening session, back on track with a vengeance after sitting out most of Thursday when flames erupted from his engine as the car exited the tunnel.

This time his engine flared up at Mirabeau, just after Casino square, in the second practice before the afternoon's single lap qualifying.

If the team have to change the power plant, Webber will lose 10 places on the starting grid under new rules limiting drivers to one engine per race weekend - a major handicap at Monaco where overtaking is almost impossible.

"We rebuilt it (the engine) on Thursday because we've got to try and qualify the race car and the race engine," said Jaguar managing director Dave Pitchforth.

"We've had another issue today and we're trying to do the same again. To go back 10 places is a big penalty so we've got about 40 minutes before we need to make the decision of what he's doing."

To complicate matters, the Jaguar garage hosted actors Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Matt Damon immediately after the practice session as part of a promotional tie-up with the forthcoming motion picture 'Ocean's 12'.

The pit lane around the garage was a seething mob of photographers and bystanders as the actors posed in front of the cars and Webber's debrief had to wait until afterwards.

Both the Minardis went into the barriers in the first session, Hungarian Zsolt Baumgartner at the Rascasse corner and Italian Gianmaria Bruni in Casino square.