Practice 2: Rubens fastest again

Ferrari dominated the session, just like it did in yesterday's wet first qualifying session. The track got slightly less wet as the free practice period went along, but you could hardly say that it dried out. Barrichello was on the money, however, outpacing team-mate Michael Schumacher by three-tenths of a second.

The rest were in a different league. Local hero Jacques Villeneuve was third fastest for BAR-Honda, but was 1.454s in arrears of Barrichello. Alonso was an impressive fourth, the only Michelin runner at the sharp end of the field, and he was followed by Jenson Button (BAR), Nick Heidfeld (Sauber) and Giancarlo Fisichella (Jordan).

Kimi Raikkonen's McLaren was the second best Michelin-shod car in eighth, ahead of Antonio Pizzonia, who spun his Jaguar at Turn 4 midway through the session. Jarno Trulli's Renault was 10th fastest, ahead of Ralf Schumacher's Williams-BMW.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen was 12th fastest, but planted his Sauber in the Turn 2 tyrewall. Yesterday's hero Ralph Firman also had a few grassy excursions on the way to 13th. Olivier Panis almost took a visit to 'Champion's Wall' on the exit of the final corner, but just avoided damaging his Toyota. He was 18th, behind Justin Wilson's Minardi - even though that lost part of its engine cover during the session.

Regular frontrunners David Coulthard (McLaren) and Juan Pablo Montoya (Williams) were a lowly 15th and 16th respectively, and both must be hoping for a change of weather as well as fortune.