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De la Rosa Fastest in Practice 2 - Britain

Pedro de la Rosa reinforced claims that McLaren are favourites for victory in Sunday's British Grand Prix when he shot to the top of the times with seconds to run in Friday's second practice session

McLaren had dominated the session, setting the three fastest times by the halfway point, but Toyota test driver Ricardo Zonta snuck ahead with ten minutes to run before de la Rosa stamped his team's authority on the times once again.

De la Rosa's time of 1:18.530 put him 0.434 seconds ahead of Toyota test driver Ricardo Zonta while McLaren race drivers Juan Pablo Montoya, of Colombia, and Finn Kimi Raikkonen, finished third and fourth.

Toyota pair Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli finished fifth and sixth as the Germany-based team also showed strong form, while Alonso, who has won five times this year, was down in seventh place.

Renault's concerns about their form was vindicated by Alonso's time while Giancarlo Fisichella also struggled and finished down in a disappointing 13th place.

Red Bull Racing saw test driver Vitantonio Liuzzi and racer David Coulthard finish eighth and ninth with World Champion Michael Schumacher down in tenth in the leading Ferrari.

Home favourite Jenson Button, who finished third fastest behind de la Rosa and Zonta in the morning session, failed to find his form and could only manage 11th fastest time for BAR-Honda.

Christian Klien went off track twice within two laps at the exit of Chapel then Jacques Villeneuve struck problems at the same corner and spun his Sauber and Jarno Trulli made a mistake in the complex and spun.

By the halfway point Raikkonen led the field but he was then overtaken at the top by Montoya with de la Rosa completing a McLaren one-two-three as the British team showed they are the ones to beat.

Klien made another mistake at Chapel towards the end of the session and with 10 minutes to go Zonta stepped up the pace to go top then improved his own time to set the fastest lap of the day before de la Rosa moved back ahead.

Pos  Driver        Team                  Time                  Laps
 1.  de la Rosa    McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:18.530               37
 2.  Zonta         Toyota            (M)  1:18.964  +    0.434   31
 3.  Montoya       McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:20.252  +    1.722   17
 4.  Raikkonen     McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:20.384  +    1.854   15
 5.  R.Schumacher  Toyota            (M)  1:20.602  +    2.072   23
 6.  Trulli        Toyota            (M)  1:20.816  +    2.286   27
 7.  Alonso        Renault           (M)  1:20.990  +    2.460   21
 8.  Liuzzi        Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:21.004  +    2.474   33
 9.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:21.034  +    2.504   19
10.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari           (B)  1:21.044  +    2.514   21
11.  Button        BAR-Honda         (M)  1:21.186  +    2.656   28
12.  Webber        Williams-BMW      (M)  1:21.235  +    2.705   20
13.  Fisichella    Renault           (M)  1:21.279  +    2.749   15
14.  Klien         Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:21.323  +    2.793   21
15.  Barrichello   Ferrari           (B)  1:21.519  +    2.989   21
16.  Massa         Sauber-Petronas   (M)  1:21.577  +    3.047   28
17.  Villeneuve    Sauber-Petronas   (M)  1:22.180  +    3.650   19
18.  Heidfeld      Williams-BMW      (M)  1:22.500  +    3.970   19
19.  Sato          BAR-Honda         (M)  1:22.795  +    4.265   12
20.  Doornbos      Jordan-Toyota     (B)  1:22.812  +    4.282   20
21.  Albers        Minardi-Cosworth  (B)  1:23.390  +    4.860   22
22.  Monteiro      Jordan-Toyota     (B)  1:23.629  +    5.099   22
23.  Karthikeyan   Jordan-Toyota     (B)  1:23.891  +    5.361   26
24.  Friesacher    Minardi-Cosworth  (B)  1:24.594  +    6.064   21

All timing unofficial

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