Irvine stays in front in spite of Frentzen charge

There were no real changes amongst the frontrunners, with Michael Schumacher failing to get close to the time he made earlier.

Eddie Irvine had set the best time from the early morning session, a time which which turned out to be the best overall.

Also, David Coulthard struggled to make any impression, putting in some rather ragged looking laps.

The session was red-flagged for five minutes when an advertising board peeled off the mounting and fell onto the track into turn three, narrowly missing a Benetton.

The Williams team produced a late flurry, with Alex Zanardi leaping to fifth and Ralf Schumacher moving up to 10th with some impressive last minute laps.

The Prosts had produced a similar performance a little earlier, Trulli and Panis moving up into the top 10 but eventually sliding back to 13th and 14th.

The only other man who found extra speed in the afternoon session was Rubens Barrichello, who moved up to eighth after a low-key start to the weekend.

For the first time in a decade, there were some local drivers for the Spanish crowd to cheer. Arrows' Pedro de la Rosa was pushing hard but was only 19th, although he did beat team-mate Tora Takagi.

Fellow Spaniard Marc Gene seemed to lose concentration on a slowing down lap and spun off the road into the tyre wall, deranging the rear wing of his Minardi.

Combined practice times from Barcelona