Free practice 2: McLaren top, but Irvine stuns

Hakkinen, whose world championship hopes lie in virtual tatters after scoring just four points in the first seven races, set a time of 1m17.672s - 0.767s inside the 200 pole time. Coulthard, who lies second in the standings, was also well inside last year's qualifying benchmark.

Irvine set his time of 1m18.508s with nearly 25 minutes of the session still to run. At the time, it was quick enough to put him top of the time sheets - but barely for a minute.

Nevertheless, it was proof of the potency of Jaguar's latest aerodynamic package, and indicative that Michelin isn't too far out of the running on the Ile de Notre Dame circuit.

Rubens Barrichello finished fourth overall for Ferrari, with his team mate and world title points-leader Michael Schumacher a distant 11th after using the session for a methodical comparison of Bridgestone's two alternative compounds.

Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher were fifth and sixth for Williams-BMW, with Nick Heidfeld putting in another excellent showing to go seventh for Sauber-Petronas, ahead of both Jordans and the top 10-completing BAR-Honda of Olivier Panis.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen's Jordan was the only real casualty of the session, the German hitting the barriers on the approach to Turn 3 in the very closing moments of the hour. Frentzen was uninjured, but will not be too comfortable with another heavy shunt so soon after his Monaco off.

Jean Alesi raised Prost hopes with 12th overall, ahead of Sauber's Kimi Raikkonen, who faded in the second session after a strong showing in the first hour.

Saturday sees two 45-minute free practice sessions, followed by a single timed hour of qualifying.

For full combined Friday free practice results, click here.