Practice 2: Sato flies

Sato came within millimetres of the 'champions' wall' at the last corner of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, but the extra momentum he gained yielded a 1m14.086s lap. His extrovert style was 0.3secs quicker than the second fastest man, Renault's Fernando Alonso, who bounced back from an early spin at Turn 2.

BAR team boss David Richards said of Sato: "He's obviously settled very well here. Jenson [Button] is not quite as comfortable here as at other tracks, so we need to get the two cars closer together."

Morning pacesetter Michael Schumacher was only third fastest in the second session, and proved how hard he was pushing when he brushed the wall at Turn 9, causing a lengthy pitstop to check for damage.

A much larger shunt happened a few minutes later, when Anthony Davidson lost control of his BAR under braking for the second gear Turn 6, which is approached in fifth gear at 160kph. The car turned sharp left, and slid across the inside of the corner before ploughing back across the track, over the gravel trap and into the tyrewall. He was unhurt.

Kimi Raikkonen showed well for McLaren, setting a late flyer to nab the fourth fastest time from Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello. Ricardo Zonta was swift once again for Toyota, and beat race team driver Cristiano da Matta into the top six.

Button was eighth, ahead of David Coulthard (McLaren), Giancarlo Fisichella (Sauber) and Monaco GP winner Jarno Trulli (Renault).

Williams had a nightmare. Ralf Schumacher was only 14th fastest, while team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya was 20th after engine problems.

As in the morning session, Jordan's Giorgio Pantano failed to make it out on track due to a management dispute.