Free practice 2: DC takes surprise top slot

But in a season in which the MP4-16 has so far struggled to match the pace of Ferrari's F2001, the ease with which he accomplished the feat was a major surprise: the Scot was 1.004s quicker than Jarno Trulli's Jordan-Honda and a massive 1.378s better than Michael Schumacher's Ferrari.

Coulthard set the time early in the second hour of free practice, but missed his braking point at the Curva do Sol in the closing minute of the session when attempting to better the time. McLaren hasn't tested with its 2001-spec car since the Malaysian GP, but whatever tweaks and fixes it has come up with in the wind tunnel, they appear to have made an improvement to the front-end grip of the MP4-16.

Times edged closer to the 2000 benchmark, with DC's fast lap just 0.465s from Schumacher's race record. Qualifying on Saturday should see last year's pole time of 1m14.111s easily bettered.

Coulthard's team mate Mika Hakkinen finished the session fifth fastest, just behind an inspired Juan Pablo Montoya, who hauled his Williams-BMW around fastest of the Michelin runners in 1m16.851s. Amazingly, the Colombian had never seen the circuit until this week.

Montoya's team mate Ralf Schumacher also fared well, finishing sixth overall after failing to set a representative time in the first session due to gearbox problems.

Rubens Barrichello, the darling of Brazil, was only seventh fastest in the second Ferrari, but concentrated more on race set-up than setting a fast time. He headed Heinz-Harald Frentzen's Jordan, which stopped at Subida do Lago, Nick Heidfeld's Sauber and Eddie Irvine's Jaguar at the tail of the top 10.

Irvine had finished the first session fastest of the Michelin runners in sixth and it's worth noting that the Big Cat's form followed a similar pattern in Malaysia, with the green cars quick out of the box, but increasingly eclipsed by Michelin stablemates Williams as the weekend progressed.

Luciano Burti continued to tail team leader Irvine in 11th, with Olivier Panis dropping to 12th, but still two places ahead of BAR-Honda team mate Jacques Villeneuve.

Further back, Jos Verstappen reversed the status quo at Arrows, taking 16th compared to Enrique Bernoldi's 19th, while Benetton continued to build character, if not speed, in 17th and 22nd. Jenson Button played tail-gunner, with Giancarlo Fisichella the more respectable of the duo.

The balance also shifted at Minardi, with Spanish rising star Fernando Alonso an excellent 18th and team mate Tarso Marques sinking to 21st, last of the five South Americans in the field.

Saturday sees two further free practice sessions at 1300 BST and 1415 BST, with qualifying at 1700 BST.

For full practice session 2 results, click here.