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Wurz fastest in practice 2 - Brazil

Austrian Alexander Wurz topped the times in Friday's second free practice session for Sunday's season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix

The Williams Cosworth driver clocked a best time of 1:12.567 to wind up fastest ahead of Briton Anthony Davidson in a Honda and German Sebastian Vettel in a BMW Sauber.

World championship contenders German Michael Schumacher of Ferrari and Spaniard Fernando Alonso of Renault were sixth and 10th respectively.

Alonso will take the title if he scores a point in Sunday's race, but Schumacher could snatch it if he wins and Alonso fails to score a point.

By the afternoon, the weather had improved marginally. The circuit was still dry, the air temperature was 21 degrees Celsius and the track temperature was 30 degrees.

Again, the Ferrari and Renault teams were reluctant to join the action and in the early minutes it was Vettel in his BMW Sauber who topped the times ahead of Briton Anthony Davidson in a Honda.

Dutchman Christijan Albers, in a Spyker MF1, spun and continued at turn nine, Pinheirinho, a long 180 degrees left-hander in the most technical part of the circuit.

But it was an isolated incident on a day of little real action as the mostly-empty grandstands reflected a feeling that none of this mattered at all - only Saturday's qualifying and Sunday's race carried real meaning.

Schumacher was in the Ferrari garage following the on-track action, his wife Corinna sitting in the team's small hospitality area nearby.

After 22 minutes, Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa went top with a fast lap in his McLaren, but he was soon replaced, after 24 minutes, when Schumacher delivered his first fast timed lap.

That lifted the 37-year-old German to the top of the timesheets ahead of Davidson, who remained competitive, Italian Giancarlo Fisichella in his Renault and de la Rosa as the session approached the half-hour mark.

As the action intensified, American Scott Speed in his Toro Rosso Cosworth, then Schumacher in his Ferrari and then Fisichella made unscheduled off-track excursions, but rejoined.

Poland's Robert Kubica, in his BMW Sauber, joined the off-track drivers, but resumed safely from some exploration at Pinheirinho, where Schumacher, too, had run off.

Soon after this, with 26 minutes remaining, Vettel's name re-appeared on top of the screens ahead of Schumacher, a signal to many that this 19-year-old is the natural German successor to the seven-time champion.

By then, every car and every driver was involved for the first time and this was reflected when Alonso, at last, recorded a laptime that lifted him up to third behind the two Germans at the top.

Dutchman Robert Doornbos was the next to cause an incident when he stopped at turn 13, part of the long left-hander before the start-finish straight, causing yellow flags to wave.

Vettel's lap in 1:13.655 stood unchallenged for some time until Davidson, again, took over as the quickest man with seven minutes to go with a lap of 1:13.136.

This was the signal for a frantic final five minutes in which Davidson trimmed his time to 1:12.653 with Vettel also running rapidly before Wurz went fastest with his best lap of all.

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time               Laps
 1.  Wurz          Williams-Cosworth   (B)  1:12.547            33
 2.  Davidson      Honda               (M)  1:12.653  + 0.106   37
 3.  Vettel        BMW-Sauber          (M)  1:12.870  + 0.323   33
 4.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)  1:13.483  + 0.936   21
 5.  Button        Honda               (M)  1:13.485  + 0.938   13
 6.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari             (B)  1:13.713  + 1.166   15
 7.  R.Schumacher  Toyota              (B)  1:13.765  + 1.218   22
 8.  Montagny      Super Aguri-Honda   (B)  1:13.792  + 1.245   20
 9.  Raikkonen     McLaren-Mercedes    (M)  1:13.803  + 1.256    8
10.  Alonso        Renault             (M)  1:13.820  + 1.273   16
11.  de la Rosa    McLaren-Mercedes    (M)  1:13.926  + 1.379   16
12.  Fisichella    Renault             (M)  1:14.053  + 1.506   17
13.  Barrichello   Honda               (M)  1:14.434  + 1.887   17
14.  Ammermuller   Red Bull-Ferrari    (M)  1:14.436  + 1.889   31
15.  Monteiro      Spyker MF1-Toyota   (B)  1:14.468  + 1.921   18
16.  Kubica        BMW-Sauber          (M)  1:14.510  + 1.963   15
17.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:14.561  + 2.014   15
18.  Heidfeld      BMW-Sauber          (M)  1:14.793  + 2.246   13
19.  Webber        Williams-Cosworth   (B)  1:14.839  + 2.292   15
20.  Viso          Spyker MF1-Toyota   (B)  1:14.972  + 2.425   26
21.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda   (B)  1:15.023  + 2.476   27
22.  Albers        Spyker MF1-Toyota   (B)  1:15.086  + 2.539   21
23.  Rosberg       Williams-Cosworth   (B)  1:15.124  + 2.577   14
24.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Ferrari    (M)  1:15.214  + 2.667   21
25.  Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Cosworth (M)  1:15.737  + 3.190   22
26.  Speed         Toro Rosso-Cosworth (M)  1:15.855  + 3.308   28
27.  Jani          Toro Rosso-Cosworth (M)  1:15.868  + 3.321   22
28.  Doornbos      Red Bull-Ferrari    (M)  1:16.251  + 3.704    8
29.  Yamamoto      Super Aguri-Honda   (B)  1:18.321  + 5.774    9

All Timing Unofficial

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