Sitting back on the pit wall, arms folded behind his head, Michael Schumacher chatted amiably with colleagues while only occasionally registering a silver flicker out of the corner of his eye as arch-rival Mika Hakkinen's McLaren blasted by in yesterday's free practice ahead of tomorrow's French Grand Prix at Magny Cours.

Schumacher may have relinquished the lead in the world championship when he crashed out two weeks ago in Canada, leaving Hakkinen to power on to a crucial win, but it's clear the German feels the defending world champion's advantage is merely a temporary aberration and that the edge Ferrari built over the first six races of the season will be re-established tomorrow afternoon.

Both Schumacher and Eddie Irvine felt confident enough to hold off until the afternoon session yesterday where Irvine, first out, quickly bettered Hakkinen's quickest time, finishing two tenths of a second quicker than the Finn.

Schumacher, too, was quick out of the traps but overconfidence initially got the better of him, as he was forced to dive into the gravel traps on his first lap out. The trip through the sand sidelined the German for more than 20 minutes but no sooner had he rejoined the fray than he had eclipsed Irvine to finish the day fastest, more than three tenths quicker than Hakkinen.

"I went off the track on my first run this afternoon because the brake balance wasn't right," Schumacher said. "After we fixed the problem, I managed to get through all of the programme. But the track's very slippery and not much fun to drive on." Irvine was also satisfied with his short afternoon's work. "Of course, it's positive for us to be at the front, but the car wasn't as easy to drive as it was during last week's test here, when we did a lot of work," he said. At Jordan, where all the focus has been on Damon Hill and the will he, won't he retire early speculation, team-mate Heinz Harald Frentzen quietly showed why he has been the dominant force, finishing the morning session fourth but pushed to sixth following the intervention of the Ferraris. The German had been a doubtful starter here after an 180 kph smash in Canada robbed him of a third podium finish this season and saw him taken to hospital where doctors expressed concern about a possible skull injury. However, after missing last week's test session to continue his recovery at home in Monaco and despite walking with an obvious limp yesterday, Frentzen was immediately on the pace and showed no signs of long-lasting damage.

While Frentzen was getting back into the racing groove, Sauber's Jean Alesi was putting in his bid for the season's biggest shunt with a massive crash in the morning session that saw him skip over the ineffective gravel trap at the Imola turn and smash sideways into the protective barriers before flipping the car on its back. Alesi crawled unhurt from the wreckage but admitted the accident had been his mistake. "It was entirely my fault," he said. "I just went into the corner too fast and once I had lost control of the car there was nothing more I could do," he said. Hill started brightly yesterday but faded as the session wore on and complained that the car felt unbalanced and less comfortable than in testing last week.

Meanwhile, Jordan technical director Mike Gascoyne said the team is likely to employ a twostop strategy with an early first pit for both drivers.