De la Rosa Fastest in Practice 2 - China
Pedro de la Rosa handed McLaren a double top in practice for the Chinese Grand Prix when he improved on his session-topping time in Friday morning practice with the fastest time in the second session
Spaniard de la Rosa finished with a time of 1:32.834 seconds to finish 0.143 seconds ahead of Toyota test driver Ricardo Zonta in an incident-filled session run in temperatures of 24 degrees Celsius in foggy conditions.
Season-long front-runners Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso were third and fourth for McLaren and Renault respectively with Juan Pablo Montoya making it three McLarens in the top five when he finished 1.707 seconds off the pace.
Rubens Barrichello was the fastest Ferrari in sixth place with Giancarlo Fisichella seventh in the second Renault and Mark Webber an encouraging eighth in his Williams.
Jenson Button finished ninth fastest in his 555-liveried BAR-Honda and Felipe Massa, in his last race for Sauber before joining Ferrari, completed the top ten runners with a time 2.362 seconds off the pace.
Christian Klien made a mistake at turn 16 and went off track in his Red Bull within the first 10 minutes and Antonio Pizzonia also went off when the right rear suspension on his Williams appeared to fail.
Alonso and Ralf Schumacher, Nicolas Kiesa and David Coulthard all went off track at turn two before during the middle of the session and Takuma Sato made a mistake at turn 14 which ended in an off-track excursion.
Klien went off at turn 14 but his car had suffered a right rear puncture and he limped back to the pits then Trulli's Toyota stopped out on the circuit at turn five and Ralf Schumacher went straight on at turn 14.
Brazilian Zonta lead the field heading into the final ten minutes of the session with Raikkonen one second behind him in second and Alonso just two tenths further back in third before de la Rosa's late run topped the times.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. de la Rosa McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:32.834 30 2. Zonta Toyota (M) 1:32.977 + 0.143 29 3. Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:34.092 + 1.258 14 4. Alonso Renault (M) 1:34.226 + 1.392 24 5. Montoya McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:34.541 + 1.707 16 6. Barrichello Ferrari (B) 1:34.618 + 1.784 24 7. Fisichella Renault (M) 1:34.932 + 2.098 28 8. Webber Williams-BMW (M) 1:35.035 + 2.201 24 9. Button BAR-Honda (M) 1:35.072 + 2.238 25 10. Massa Sauber-Petronas (M) 1:35.196 + 2.362 26 11. Coulthard Red Bull-Cosworth (M) 1:35.201 + 2.367 19 12. Liuzzi Red Bull-Cosworth (M) 1:35.306 + 2.472 26 13. Sato BAR-Honda (M) 1:35.397 + 2.563 24 14. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 1:35.567 + 2.733 24 15. Klien Red Bull-Cosworth (M) 1:35.613 + 2.779 19 16. Pizzonia Williams-BMW (M) 1:35.709 + 2.875 13 17. Villeneuve Sauber-Petronas (M) 1:35.894 + 3.060 21 18. R.Schumacher Toyota (M) 1:36.051 + 3.217 20 19. Trulli Toyota (M) 1:36.079 + 3.245 26 20. Kiesa Jordan-Toyota (B) 1:36.644 + 3.810 25 21. Doornbos Minardi-Cosworth (B) 1:36.993 + 4.159 22 22. Albers Minardi-Cosworth (B) 1:37.173 + 4.339 21 23. Monteiro Jordan-Toyota (B) 1:37.435 + 4.601 11 24. Karthikeyan Jordan-Toyota (B) 1:37.467 + 4.633 18 All timing unofficial
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