Mark Webber's Jaguar burned as Michael Schumacher showed his intentions of claiming his sixth win of the season with the fastest time in practice for Sunday's Monaco Grand Prix.

The German world champion, unbeaten in his Ferrari this year, was in scintillating form around the narrow streets as he set a fastest lap of 1min 14.741sec to lead the field in two incident-packed sessions.

His time put him 0.4 secs clear of BAR-Honda's British test driver Anthony Davidson with team-mate Rubens Barrichello claiming the third fastest time but finishing more than half a second behind.

Jaguar suffered a terrible start to the weekend when all three of their drivers were prevented from completing the full day's running with Webber's car catching fire midway through the first session.

Schumacher has tipped BAR and Renault to be his closest contenders this season and they did not disappoint as Briton Jenson Button and Japan's Takuma Sato finished sixth and seventh for BAR.

Renault pair Jarno Trulli, of Italy, and Fernando Alonso, of Spain, also proved their car works well around the tight and twisty circuit by setting fourth and ninth fastest laps respectively.

McLaren, who had been hoping the unique layout of the circuit could give them a chance to improve on the disappointing form they have shown so far this season, enjoyed a mixed showing.

Finn Kimi Raikkonen, who had been tipped to fight for the title but has so far scored only one point, finished fifth fastest but Scot David Coulthard, who won here in 2002 and started from pole in 2001, could only claim 11th place.

Williams pair Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher also suffered mixed fortunes as they finished 10th and 12th fastest respectively, with the latter stopping out on the circuit in the morning session.

He will lose 10 grid places on Saturday after changing his engine following the incident.

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