Practice 2: Barrichello again

Juan Pablo Montoya was once again the quicker of the two Williams in third ahead of the second Ferrari of Michael Schumacher.

BAR's Jenson Button was fifth while Ralf Schumacher was sixth in the second Williams.

If the first practice session at Indianapolis lacked any major drama, the second more than made up for it with almost every driver pushing their cars a little too far as they found themselves on the grass or gravel.

McLaren's David Coulthard was one such victim to end up on the grass within the first five minutes of the session, but unlike the others, this was not his fault as his car came to a suspicious halt in what could be yet another Mercedes problem. Team-mate Kimi Raikkonen completed the session finishing the day 10th.

Minutes later and Fernando Alonso was the next casualty as he spun his R24 at Turn 11 and ended up in the gravel, his session over before it had really begun. The Spaniard managed to complete three laps before his off putting him in 20th.

Meanwhile, BAR's Anthony Davidson was determined to put his Canadian nightmare behind him and posted the quickest lap of the session with a 1m12.302s. Once again, though, Schumacher was having none of it and promptly set a 1m12.285s, even finding time for a spectacular 85mph spin at Turn 11.

While Schumacher Sr was having some fun, brother Ralf went off track twice during the session. Sixth spot was a solid result at the end of the session given his twitchy FW26.

But just when the times started to fall again, BAR's Takuma Sato thought he'd try some overtaking practice and picked Sauber's Felipe Massa as his prey. Putting F1's two most over-exuberant drivers together was never going to end satisfactorily, and so it was as the two locked horns and slid off the circuit.

Massa nursed his car back to the pits for some speedy repairs but for the hapless Sato it was the end of his session. Team boss David Richards, who had already voiced his annoyance of his charge in the first session, was more circumspect than expected, he'll no doubt have something different to say to the Japanese driver later.

"Massa was shown the blue flag so he should have let him [Sato] through, but it was absolutely unnecessary because it's only free practice," he said.

With the session re-started it was all go at the top of the timesheets as first Barrichello then Zonta grabbed the top spot. Neither could match Montoya's lap though - at 1m10.982s it was easily the fastest lap of the day and seven tenths of a second quicker than last year's pole.

With a target in his sights Barrichello went on a charge to beat Montoya by 0.008s, not even Schumacher Sr could match the Brazilian's effort and in the process managed a spectacular spin at Turn 11.

The session was not over though as Davidson put in a quick one only for Barrichello to reclaim his position at the top with a stonking lap of 1m10.365s the quickest time of the day and an ominous six tenths quicker than Davidson in second place.

Ferrari technical boss Ross Brawn was happy with the day's proceedings and satisfied that the Bridgestone tyres would perform well over one lap.

"At least we've got a some good first-lap tyres. Rubens set his fastest lap on his first lap out so we're confident we'll be competitive in the qualifying as well as the race," he said.