Williams happy with progress

Juan Pablo Montoya was seventh quickest, 0.695s slower than Jenson Button managed in the BAR-Honda. While Ralf Schumacher was 11th, just under four tenths further back.

"I got almost the same position in the second session that I achieved in the first session but I must say the car has definitely improved from this morning," said Juan Pablo Montoya. "It became more drivable and more consistent, but there's still a lot of work to be done, as we need to improve our pace for Saturday.

I am a bit surprised by the times achieved by some of the fastest drivers today, but we have to wait and see what happens in tomorrow's qualifying. The track will be quicker and we might take advantage of this hot weather."

Ralf Schumacher, who scored his first victory at the Imola circuit in 2001 admitted that he had not concentrated on pace: "I must say that for once I am not worried about not being at the top, since today we only concentrated on our job-list. We were able to go through our programme just as we wished to, with no problems at all.

There is still room for improvement and I've got quite a lot of work ahead," admitted Ralf. "Furthermore, the tyre choice will be crucial, even if I am sure we will make the right decision."

The team's chief operations engineer Sam Michael commented: "We have had a trouble free first day in terms of reliability, but we also have a lot of work to do tonight to improve the pace of the cars. We have enough good data to make our tyre choice. The weather is warmer than expected, which should be good for us."