By Andrew Benson
Motorsport editor at the Spanish GP |
The world champion lapped in one minute 15.022 seconds to end up 0.617secs ahead of his closest rival, BMW Williams driver Juan Pablo Montoya.
Takuma Sato was third for BAR-Honda ahead of Renault's Jarno Trulli.
David Coulthard was 10th and Jenson Button 14th after an error on his lap.
The Englishman ran wide at the 125mph Campsa corner halfway around the lap, but his time in the first sector of the lap was the same as Sato's, suggesting he would not have been able to match Schumacher.
Schumacher said he had not expected to be so far ahead.
"We saw BAR testing here and were very impressed by their pace. Obviously we will not know where Jenson could have been because they have been quick here all weekend," he said.
Schumacher left even his team-mate Rubens Barrichello trailing - the Brazilian was 1.250secs behind in fifth place.
 |  We knew we could go really strong here |
Montoya had complained about the performance of his car on Friday, but said some overnight changes had made a big difference.
"I think we're pretty good in the race," the Colombian said. "We'll see how we are compared with the Bridgestone tyres (on the Ferrari), but compared to the other Michelin runners I think we're pretty good."
Sato's third place is the best ever achieved by a Japanese driver in F1.
"I'm very pleased," he said. "This is the circuit where we tested most of the time over the winter and we knew we could go really strong here."
He said he was aiming to equal or beat the best ever race result by a Japanese, which was a third place achieved by Aguri Suzuki at the 1990 Japanese Grand Prix.
"This is the target," Sato said. "If you qualify third you are expecting to get a podium finish.
"That is really hard I guess because I have never done it. But I will try my best."
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