IMOLA is Ferrari's home circuit, and the most famous team in motor racing responded to the expectations of their supporters with first and second places for Eddie Irvine and Michael Schumacher in the opening practice sessions for the San Marino Grand Prix yesterday.

But their legions are used to being deceived by false dawns, and there was probably less to this performance than met the eye. The fact that Ferraris were in the first two positions last night may turn out to have been no more significant than fifth and seventh places for Jacques Villeneuve and Heinz-Harald Frentzen in the two Williams-Renaults, which reflected not a collapse of form for the current champion team but rather a day spent working towards a set-up for Sunday's race, using old tyres and carrying realistic fuel loads.

For Ferrari, the priorities are different. At Imola, a red car in pole position can mean the difference between a crowd of 180,000 and one of 90,000. The former figure was achieved twice, in 1983 and 1996, when Rene Arnoux and Michael Schumacher respectively led the qualifying times. The plunge to half that number came in 1993, when the team's fortunes were at a nadir.

Decades of under-achievement by the team have bred a degree of cynicism in the face of hometown performances such as yesterday's. But whether or not the stopwatch told the truth about the car's potential, Irvine was greatly encouraged by a display which came on the heels of his judiciously aggressive battle with Villeneuve in Buenos Aires a fortnight ago.

Second place in Argentina, where Schumacher crashed at the first corner, rehabilitated the Irishman's reputation overnight in the eyes of a growing band of Italian critics. If vine has been able to test the car more frequently this season, and his labour is beginning to bear fruit.

"It's getting better and better," he said. "Today we made a big step forward." Schumacher was more cautious. "We did a good job," he observed, "but we need to find an even better set-up for tomorrow. On Sunday the two Ferraris are scheduled to run a new version of their V 10 engine.

Villeneuve, leading the championship with two wins from three races, and Frentzen, who is coming under pressure to justify his place in the team, spent much of yesterday working out how to make their brakes last the entire distance on, Sunday. In Australia, at the opening race of the season,

Frentzen was denied a podium finish when one of his front brakes exploded, and it became apparent that on certain circuits this is the only real weakness of the Williams-Renault FW 19.

For the Benetton team, growing impatient for a return to success, yesterday's third and fourth positions fob Gerhard Berger and Jean Alesi held omit a degree of promise. Sunday's race will he Berger's 200th grand prix since his debut in 1984.

Martin McCarthy adds. Eddie Jordan's drivers were both at war and in the wars. Giancarlo Fisichella and Ralf Schumacher both spun off in the afternoon and finished well down the order.

Civil war has broken out in the Jordan team, with Fisichella getting increasingly bitter about Schumacher's driving in Argentina when he shunted his team-mate off the track.

Eddie Jordan's optimism that a quick chat at the factory would sort things out proved way off the mark. "Our friendship is over", said Fisichella yesterday. "I will work with Ralph for the team, but when we are not working I want nothing to do with him."