Free practice 2: Irvine tops for Jag

Irvine, who was only eighth in the first session, leapt to fifth after 10 minutes of the second period. Fifteen minutes later, he headed the session by over half a second after setting his 1m41.424s lap, giving the Coventry marque its biggest boost since he recorded a podium finish at Monaco in May.

Jaguar was also king of the speed traps - vitally important on the ultra-fast, tree-lined circuit. Irvine's team mate, Pedro de la Rosa, was fastest through two of the traps with only Nick Heidfeld's Petronas-powered Sauber pipping him in the middle sector.

De la Rosa, who was second this morning, ended the day sixth fastest, 0.878secs behind his team mate.

Montoya was the only man capable of taking the fight to Irvine and came agonisingly close to topping the session himself. After a series of laps which threatened, he failed by 0.063secs.

His team mate, Ralf Schumacher, fared less well. The German binned his Williams on his very first flying lap of the second session by running wide in the stadium section and clipping a kerb which sent him scuttling into the Sudkurve gravel trap. He nudged the tyrewall and that was his work over for the day.

With its lead driver out of action for the rest of the session, Montoya alone was left to guide Williams as it chased a set-up and evaluated the compounds on offer from Michelin. The Colombian opted for more wing and a stiffer rear end to combat the understeer he suffered earlier in the session, which allowed him to chase after Irvine's time.

With Michelin ruling the roost, Bridgestone's best runner was McLaren's Mika Hakkinen. The Finn was third quickest, but almost half a second in arrears of the Michelin-shod Jaguar and Williams.

Hakkinen just pipped Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello, who was fastest in the first session this morning. Barrichello was unable to go for a time at the end of the session due to a hydraulic problem.

Despite this, the Brazilian held a three-tenth advantage over his World Champion team mate Michael Schumacher, who suffered a number of minor off-track excursions on first outing in an F1 car since his high-speed Monza crash.

Behind de la Rosa in sixth came David Coulthard, whose McLaren was just 0.002s shy of the second Jaguar.

Jean Alesi was eight fastest to give the Prost team a tonic after a lacklustre season so far. Along with Ralf Schumacher in 10th, the Frenchman made it five Michelin-tyred cars in the top ten.

After its whirlwind week, Jordan-Honda was a disappointing ninth and 13th with Jarno Trulli and promoted test driver Ricardo Zonta. The latter was half a second slower than his more illustrious team mate and will be keen to see that gap come down as he tries to prove his worth to Eddie Jordan.

Both Jordans beat the similarly-engined British American Racing cars of Olivier Panis and Jacques Villeneuve, however, who languished in 14th and 17th respectively. Sauber also suffered a lack of pace, with Heidfeld 12th and Kimi Raikkonen a lowly 16th.

The team which has made a big leap forwards, though, is Benetton-Renault. Giancarlo Fisichella ran in the top 10 for much of the day before slipping to 11th, while Jenson Button ended the day 15th, but was at the wrong end of three drivers who all set 1m43.4s laps. Button was 0.4secs slower than his Italian colleague.

The Arrows-Asiatechs of Jos Verstappen and Enrique Bernoldi sandwiched the second Prost of Luciano Burti in 18th and 20th places respectively.

Adding a much-needed comedy element to the German atmosphere was the Minardi squad, as Tarso Marques spun at the Ostkurve, forcing team mate Fernando Alonso to take to the gravel trap in avoidance. No serious damage was done but, all the same, oops...

For full results, click here.