Martini quickest in second practice

Martini left his fastest lap right until the end in what appeared to be a qualification simulation attempt, and he beat Eric Van de Poele's best from the morning's session by 0.2 seconds to produce the fastest lap around the Losail circuit ever recorded.

Martini lowered the bar to 1:47.549 seconds in the first four-wheeled meeting to take place at the track. By comparison, Casey Stoner's MotoGP pole position earlier this year was 1:55.683 seconds.

Nigel Mansell was again fast in the blisteringly hot conditions, and was sitting atop of the timesheets until Martini's attempt. While the track temperature soared to 52 degrees Celsius, Mansell's best of the afternoon was 0.794 seconds slower than Martini, however the Briton's 13 laps were more focused on race set-up.

This morning's pace-setter, van de Poele, was third quickest, ahead of Christian Danner and Stefan Johansson.

Andrea de Cesaris caused the first red flag of the weekend, when he spun at Turn 1. The top plane on his rear wing collapsed at the end of the straight, causing a loss of grip, due to a suspected loose bolt on the end plate.

Emerson Fittipaldi also came to grief with a spin at the final corner on one of his quickest laps.

The desert and windy climate caused the session to be delayed by 45 minutes when the track had to be swept to remove the sand.

Pos Driver         Time                Laps
1.  Martini        1:47.549             21
2.  Mansell        1:48.343   + 0.794   13
3.  Van de Poele   1:48.449   + 0.900   18
4.  Danner         1:48.452   + 0.903   14
5.  Johansson      1:48.578   + 1.029   18
6.  Cheever        1:48.731   + 1.182   20
7.  Warwick        1:48.796   + 1.247   14
8.  Lammers        1:48.869   + 1.320   19
9.  Patrese        1:49.005   + 1.456   16
10. Stuck          1:49.198   + 1.649   13
11. Salazar        1:49.803   + 2.254   19
12. de Cesaris     1:50.220   + 2.671   13
13. Fittipaldi     1:50.611   + 3.062   20
14. Tambay         1:52.330   + 4.781   12
15. Arnoux         1:54.713   + 7.164   7