Free practice 2: DC upstages Ferrari

The McLaren fightback commenced early in the session, as Raikkonen immediately leapt to third fastest overall on a 1m34.3s, which was bettered soon after by Coulthard with a 1m33.765s. Renault's Jarno Trulli then joined the party, with a 1m33.526s effort that briefly held top spot, but Raikkonen dived into the 32s with a 1m32.298s lap.

Coulthard then slipped off the track and into the gravel at Dunlop Kurve, but after a break in the pits he returned to set a 1m31.886s, which remained the fastest time of the session.

Michael Schumacher, who had no distractions of any goals in the Germany v USA World Cup game during the session, went for a late effort but came up 0.155secs short. He was cheered up on his return to the Ferrari pits as Germany then scored the opening goal soon after the session had ended.

Raikkonen's earlier time was good for third, ahead of Barrichello, who was quickest in the first session but was unable to come up with the goods in the second. Juan Pablo Montoya was the quickest of the Williams-BMW pairing, but complained of understeer throughout. His team-mate Ralf Schumacher was sixth fastest, just a couple of hundredths shy.

Trulli slipped to seventh, ahead of Renault team-mate Jenson Button. Mika Salo was ninth fastest for Toyota, despite a late run-in with Enrique Bernoldi, who baulked him on his final run. Olivier Panis was 10th and the fastest of the Honda runners, while the Saubers of Nick Heidfeld and Felipe Massa, which looked good in session one, slipped back to 11th and 16th respectively.

Quite a few drivers slid off the track in the new section of circuit, with Turn 2 providing the most action. Takuma Sato was the first to slide on to the run-off, quickly followed by fellow rookie Massa and Heidfeld. Salo overshot the first corner, necessitating a neat spin turn, while Montoya also slid off at Turn 2.

Jordan's Giancarlo Fisichella went off late on at Dunlop, dumping gravel on the circuit, and was surprisingly slower than team-mate Sato. Minardi's Alex Yoong ground to halt mid-way through with a suspected engine failure, while his colleague Mark Webber slid into the gravel at Dunlop with what appeared to be a right-rear suspension failure.

Problem fixed, Webber bounced back to outpace the Jaguar of Eddie Irvine. The Ulsterman lagged 1.3secs behind his team-mate Pedro de la Rosa, who was 14th fastest. Toyota's Allan McNish slipped back from fourth in the opening session to 18th in the second period.