Schumacher: Hit the road, Jacques

According to David Coulthard, BAR would be better off keeping Villeneuve alongside Britain's Jenson Button.

Coulthard said: "I think, in any situation, it's better the devil you know than the devil you don't.

"There's not going to be someone significantly quicker than Jacques, even if he did go. And Jenson obviously feels comfortable with working with him now and I don't think he's blown Jacques' doors off.

"I don't know where he's going. One thing is that he's not going to have the same salary bracket that he has now. But I still think he's a fast racing driver."

Coulthard swept to the fastest time in first practice this morning as Justin Wilson continued his promising debut for Jaguar Racing.

The 32-year-old Scot, who yesterday insisted he was confident of being retained by McLaren in 2004, took top spot late in the session.

Wilson found himself in the heady heights of ninth place.

Italy's Jarno Trulli had been quickest for much of first practice before being being displaced by Coulthard by just 0.094secs.

Trulli's fellow Renault driver Fernando Alonso finished third fastest with Williams-BMW's Juan Pablo Montoya fifth while Cristiano da Matta was sixth for Toyota.

Michael Schumacher, who leads Coulthard's team-mate Kimi Raikkonen by just seven points in the world championship race with 50 points left to play for, had a difficult opening session, finishing in 11th after spinning off the track on one of his early laps.