Zonta Quickest in Practice 2

In much lower temperatures than expected, which barely reached 28 degrees Celsius in the afternoon session, the drivers continued putting in the laps and gaining experience of the new track.

And after the one hours of practice Brazilian Zonta led the way with a time of 1:25.583 having produced a late flying lap to put his Toyota on top of the timesheets.

McLaren, however, showed again that they are the form team in Formula One as test driver Pedro de la Rosa finished second, 0.613 seconds slower, while Juan Pablo Montoya and Finn Kimi Raikkonen claimed third and fourth.

Briton Jenson Button finished fifth fastest in his BAR-Honda with Italian Red Bull test driver Vitantonio Liuzzi sixth and Alonso's Renault teammate Giancarlo Fisichella eighth fastest.

Italian Jarno Trulli, the fastest of Toyota's race drivers, finished down in ninth place some 2.381 seconds slower than Zonta, and Takuma Sato completed the top ten in the second BAR-Honda.

World Champion Michael Schumacher, hopeful of continuing his improved performance here, finished down in 13th place after several mistakes and his Ferrari teammate Rubens Barrichello managed only 15th.

Schumacher twice missed the apex at turn ten while Felipe Massa and Christian Klien both had small spins at turns nine and eight respectively during the first 20 minutes.

By the halfway point it was Montoya who led the timesheets with a time of 1:26.525 ahead of Zonta with the other McLarens of de la Rosa and Raikkonen third and fourth.

Raikkonen also went wide at turn ten, as did Vitantonio Liuzzi, then Klien made a mistake at turn 10 before Schumacher suffered again at turn eight and Montoya went wide at turn 10.

Pos  Driver        Team                   Time                  Laps
 1.  Zonta         Toyota            (M)  1:25.583               32
 2.  de la Rosa    McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:26.196  +    0.613   33
 3.  Montoya       McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:26.525  +    0.942   17
 4.  Raikkonen     McLaren-Mercedes  (M)  1:27.274  +    1.691   18
 5.  Button        BAR-Honda         (M)  1:27.346  +    1.763   28
 6.  Liuzzi        Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:27.578  +    1.995   28
 7.  Alonso        Renault           (M)  1:27.579  +    1.996   25
 8.  Fisichella    Renault           (M)  1:27.673  +    2.090   29
 9.  Trulli        Toyota            (M)  1:27.964  +    2.381   22
10.  Sato          BAR-Honda         (M)  1:28.081  +    2.498   25
11.  Webber        Williams-BMW      (M)  1:28.120  +    2.537   20
12.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:28.235  +    2.652   25
13.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari           (B)  1:28.293  +    2.710   25
14.  Villeneuve    Sauber-Petronas   (M)  1:28.404  +    2.821   26
15.  Barrichello   Ferrari           (B)  1:28.460  +    2.877   25
16.  R.Schumacher  Toyota            (M)  1:28.641  +    3.058   22
17.  Massa         Sauber-Petronas   (M)  1:28.681  +    3.098   27
18.  Klien         Red Bull-Cosworth (M)  1:28.828  +    3.245   21
19.  Heidfeld      Williams-BMW      (M)  1:28.959  +    3.376   21
20.  Monteiro      Jordan-Toyota     (B)  1:30.626  +    5.043   21
21.  Doornbos      Minardi-Cosworth  (B)  1:30.628  +    5.045   16
22.  Albers        Minardi-Cosworth  (B)  1:30.730  +    5.147   22
23.  Kiesa         Jordan-Toyota     (B)  1:30.884  +    5.301   18
24.  Karthikeyan   Jordan-Toyota     (B)  1:30.899  +    5.316   12
25.  Toccacelo     Minardi-Cosworth  (B)  1:32.813  +    7.230   19 

All timing unofficial