De la Rosa on Top, Montoya Crashes

McLaren test driver de la Rosa, who topped the morning session with a time of 1:15.675, went even faster in the hotter second session and finished more than a second faster than his rivals with a stunning time of 1:15.062.

His flying lap, set in the closing stages of the session, was 1.158 seconds faster than second-placed Toyota test driver Ricardo Zonta and 1.465 seconds clear of third-placed Williams driver Nick Heidfeld, the fastest race driver.

Kimi Raikkonen, McLaren's leading race driver, finished fourth 1.524 seconds off the pace of his teammate with Jarno Trulli, of Toyota, setting the fifth fastest time ahead of sixth-placed Red Bull Racing driver David Coulthard.

Giancarlo Fisichella, who completed 24 laps for Renault, finished seventh ahead of the third Toyota of Ralf Schumacher while fans' favourite Fernando Alonso and recovering McLaren driver Juan Pablo Montoya completed the top ten.

Montoya suffered a disaster in his second practice session back from injury, however, when he crashed heavily at turn nine just 30 seconds from the end of the session.

Montoya, who missed the last two races with an injured shoulder, managed just 10 laps in the session and he looked to be in pain with his left arm as he climbed away from the car.

Zonta set the early pace, as he had done in the opening session of the day, and with 30 minutes of the session gone he led the times with his lap of 1:16.220, which remained unbeaten until the closing seconds.

Christian Klien stopped out on track during the session and with 20 minutes to run Zonta was still ahead with Raikkonen closest 0.336 seconds behind and Coulthard more than half a second away in third.

Temperatures had risen from 21 degrees to 24 by the afternoon session and the grandstands around the Circuit de Catalunya were packed with Spanish fans hoping to catch a glimpse of home hero Alonso.

Alonso, who completed just two full laps in the opening session of the day, had clocked just eight laps of the circuit by the halfway point but finished with a crowd-pleasing total of 24.

Christijan Albers' running was limited, although not by choice, when his Minardi stopped on the circuit early on while Williams driver Mark Webber, who missed the first session, missed the entire second session as he sat in the garage.

Pos  Driver        Team                  Time                  Laps
 1.  de la Rosa    McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:15.062               28
 2.  Zonta         Toyota            (M)  1:16.220  +    1.158   34
 3.  Heidfeld      Williams-BMW      (M)  1:16.527  +    1.465   30
 4.  Raikkonen     McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:16.586  +    1.524   17
 5.  Trulli        Toyota            (M)  1:16.653  +    1.591   26
 6.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:16.797  +    1.735   24
 7.  Fisichella    Renault           (M)  1:17.200  +    2.138   24
 8.  R.Schumacher  Toyota            (M)  1:17.264  +    2.202   22
 9.  Alonso        Renault           (M)  1:17.356  +    2.294   24
10.  Montoya       McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:17.555  +    2.493   10
11.  Barrichello   Ferrari           (B)  1:17.702  +    2.640   22
12.  Massa         Sauber-Petronas   (M)  1:17.931  +    2.869   24
13.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari           (B)  1:18.042  +    2.980   22
14.  Villeneuve    Sauber-Petronas   (M)  1:18.336  +    3.274   27
15.  Liuzzi        Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:18.444  +    3.382   26
16.  Klien         Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:18.802  +    3.740   23
17.  Karthikeyan   Jordan-Toyota     (B)  1:18.858  +    3.796   24
18.  Doornbos      Jordan-Toyota     (B)  1:19.125  +    4.063   28
19.  Monteiro      Jordan-Toyota     (B)  1:19.140  +    4.078   27
20.  Albers        Minardi-Cosworth  (B)  1:19.581  +    4.519   17
21.  Friesacher    Minardi-Cosworth  (B)  1:20.686  +    5.624   23
22.  Webber        Williams-BMW      (M)  No Time                  

All timing unofficial