Wurz Stays on Top in Practice 2

Wurz, who had set the fastest time of the day in the morning session, failed to improve on his previous time but his lap of 1:12.083 was fast enough to put him ahead of a South American quad.

Wurz's teammate Juan Pablo Montoya had to settle for second while Toyota test driver Ricardo Zonta, in third, headed a trio of Brazilians ahead of Sauber's Felipe Massa in fourth and the Ferrari of Rubens Barrichello in fifth.

Finn Kimi Raikkonen, who must win to maintain any hope of catching title race leader Fernando Alonso, finished sixth fastest for McLaren with Jacques Villeneuve seventh in the second Sauber.

World Champion Michael Schumacher finished eighth fastest, despite a spin, while Italian Jarno Trulli set the ninth fastest time for Toyota and Giancarlo Fisichella finished out the top ten in his Renault.

Alonso, who is expecting to benefit from improvements to his Renault this weekend, finished down in 11th place while the lead BAR-Honda car of Briton Jenson Button, who also brought in improvements, finished down in 17th place.

Schumacher made a mistake at turn seven and spun his Ferrari after just eight minutes but he was able to continue and then made himself the early session leader with a lap of 1:13.205.

Massa moved ahead with half the session remaining then the usual suspects began to step up the pace as Montoya moved ahead with a lap of 1:12.694, still almost a second slower than the morning's fastest time.

Christian Klien had a big crash in his Red Bull Racing machine, heavily damaging the rear of his car after he spun backwards into the barriers at turn nine and causing yellow flags to come out while the car was craned away.

Jordan test driver Nicolas Kiesa also made a mistake and spun off and Mark Webber spun his Williams at turn four on another trying day for the Australian and his men from Grove.

It looked all set to be a good day for South America with six minutes to go as drivers from the home continent filled the first four places with Colombian Montoya ahead of Brazilians Zonta, Massa and Barrichello.

Pos  Driver        Team                   Time                  Laps
 1.  Wurz          McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:12.083               38
 2.  Montoya       McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:12.694  +    0.611   13
 3.  Zonta         Toyota            (M)  1:12.706  +    0.623   36
 4.  Massa         Sauber-Petronas   (M)  1:12.710  +    0.627   28
 5.  Barrichello   Ferrari           (B)  1:13.088  +    1.005   21
 6.  Raikkonen     McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:13.172  +    1.089   18
 7.  Villeneuve    Sauber-Petronas   (M)  1:13.202  +    1.119   21
 8.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari           (B)  1:13.205  +    1.122   24
 9.  Trulli        Toyota            (M)  1:13.493  +    1.410   26
10.  Fisichella    Renault           (M)  1:13.518  +    1.435   29
11.  Alonso        Renault           (M)  1:13.545  +    1.462   29
12.  Webber        Williams-BMW      (M)  1:13.650  +    1.567   18
13.  Pizzonia      Williams-BMW      (M)  1:13.828  +    1.745   19
14.  Doornbos      Minardi-Cosworth  (B)  1:13.922  +    1.839   28
15.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:14.006  +    1.923   22
16.  Liuzzi        Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:14.141  +    2.058   29
17.  Button        BAR-Honda         (M)  1:14.189  +    2.106   26
18.  R.Schumacher  Toyota            (M)  1:14.427  +    2.344   20
19.  Albers        Minardi-Cosworth  (B)  1:14.563  +    2.480   23
20.  Sato          BAR-Honda         (M)  1:14.584  +    2.501   27
21.  Monteiro      Jordan-Toyota     (B)  1:14.671  +    2.588   22
22.  Klien         Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:14.698  +    2.615    7
23.  Kiesa         Jordan-Toyota     (B)  1:15.094  +    3.011   25
24.  Karthikeyan   Jordan-Toyota     (B)  1:15.187  +    3.104   19

All timing unofficial