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Wurz fastest in practice 2 - Monaco

Alexander Wurz, the reserve driver for the Williams team, rose above the chaos around him to clock the fastest time on a day of accidents and mayhem in practice for Sunday's Monaco Grand Prix

The 32-year-old Austrian clocked a best time of 1:15.907 to outpace nearest rival Briton Anthony Davidson, in a Honda, by more than one tenth of a second.

Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya was third fastest for McLaren-Mercedes and defending World Champion Fernando Alonso, in a Renault, was fourth.

Seven-time champion Michael Schumacher, in his Ferrari, was only 15th fastest, but it was hardly an indication of his potential - or a signal of what may lie ahead - after so many red flags and stoppages.

Finn Kimi Raikkonen, who suffered an engine-related problem during the morning session when his blazing car required attention from the fire marshals as it exited the tunnel, wound up sixth fastest in the afternoon when the track was much faster than it had been in the morning.

In hazy and warm conditions, in which the track temperature was 41 Celsius and the air temperature 22, the day's action was dominated by the various incidents and accidents.

There were three major ones all of which resulted in a red flag and the stopping of the session - a signal that if such actions continue on Saturday, the qualifying session may run on far beyond its allocated hour.

In the first incident, Davidson ran over a traffic cone and left debris behind on the track, causing a red flag. This meant a delay of three minutes.

Davidson then crashed and caused a second red flag again and no sooner had the session been re-started by the officials than it was stopped again for a third time.

This came when Poland's Robert Kubica, in a BMW, crashed on the exit of the Rascasse hairpin.

Davidson, in a Honda, had lost control of his car on the exit of the Ste Devote corner, where he slid into a tyre barrier. The impact removed his front left wheel, which bounced off the barriers and into the circuit before coming to a rest.

The red flags were waved immediately, for the second time, and the session was halted, as it was to be a few minutes later for a third time.

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time              Laps
 1.  Wurz          Williams-Cosworth   (B)  1:15.907           27
 2.  Davidson      Honda               (M)  1:16.075 + 0.168   15
 3.  Montoya       McLaren-Mercedes    (M)  1:16.138 + 0.231   24
 4.  Alonso        Renault             (M)  1:16.221 + 0.314   18
 5.  Doornbos      Red Bull-Ferrari    (M)  1:16.292 + 0.385   36
 6.  Raikkonen     McLaren-Mercedes    (M)  1:16.707 + 0.800   18
 7.  Fisichella    Renault             (M)  1:16.721 + 0.814   23
 8.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Ferrari    (M)  1:16.870 + 0.963   19
 9.  Button        Honda               (M)  1:16.903 + 0.996   20
10.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:17.251 + 1.344   25
11.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)  1:17.325 + 1.418   25
12.  Monteiro      MF1-Toyota          (B)  1:17.439 + 1.532   30
13.  Barrichello   Honda               (M)  1:17.456 + 1.549   24
14.  Mondini       MF1-Toyota          (B)  1:17.497 + 1.590   30
15.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari             (B)  1:17.603 + 1.696   25
16.  Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Cosworth (M)  1:17.638 + 1.731   31
17.  Webber        Williams-Cosworth   (B)  1:17.744 + 1.837   19
18.  R.Schumacher  Toyota              (B)  1:17.793 + 1.886   26
19.  Rosberg       Williams-Cosworth   (B)  1:17.845 + 1.938   15
20.  Villeneuve    BMW-Sauber          (M)  1:17.874 + 1.967   13
21.  Klien         Red Bull-Ferrari    (M)  1:18.123 + 2.216   22
22.  Heidfeld      BMW-Sauber          (M)  1:18.257 + 2.350   10
23.  Speed         Toro Rosso-Cosworth (M)  1:18.420 + 2.513   29
24.  Albers        MF1-Toyota          (B)  1:18.430 + 2.523   24
25.  Montagny      Super Aguri-Honda   (B)  1:18.731 + 2.824   19
26.  Kubica        BMW-Sauber          (M)  1:19.273 + 3.366   12
27.  Jani          Toro Rosso-Cosworth (M)  1:19.445 + 3.538   27
28.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda   (B)  1:19.803 + 3.896   31

All Timing Unofficial

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