McLaren delivered on its winter testing promise during Fridays
second practice session in Melbourne, with all three of its cars
finishing among the top five.
The Woking squads third driver Pedro de la Rosa upstaged his
superstar team-mates Kimi Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya in the
waning moments to set the days fastest time.
Raikkonen and Montoya spent much of the session trading the top
spot, with JPM setting an early benchmark of 1m27.752 after 15
minutes.
Renaults Giancarlo Fisichella enjoyed a brief taste of glory
before being demoted by a 1m26.692s lap from Raikkonen. Montoya
then upped the ante to 1m26.227s, which remained beyond reach until
Michael Schumacher threatened to spoil the McLaren party with a
1m26.081s lap.
After a leisurely start to the day, Ferrari had been gradually
picking up the pace and Schumacher slipped in his quick lap almost
unnoticed.
Whatever the potential of McLaren and Renaults 2005 challengers,
Maranellos modified 2004 car complete with its bizarre-looking
baby wing clearly remains a highly potent machine. The message
from the world champions was clear: Underestimate us at your
peril.
McLaren did have an answer, however, as de la Rosa eclipsed
Schumachers mark by a full 0.7s courtesy of a clean and tidy lap
with around four minutes remaining.
Raikkonen staked a final claim to the Friday honours but came up
exactly 0.3s short and had to settle for the second-best
time.
Schumacher was relegated to fourth place by an outstanding late
effort from Nick Heidfeld, who coaxed his Williams around in
1m25.940s. Montoya, meanwhile, watched the last few minutes of the
session from the pits and was shuffled back to fifth.
Felipe Massa was an encouraging sixth fastest for Sauber, some 1.1s
and 10 places ahead of team-mate Jacques Villeneuve.
The Renaults of Fernando Alonso and Fisichella ended up seventh and
10th respectively and so far have not managed to reproduce their
stunning testing form, although they certainly appear to be
competitive.
Fisichella was one of a host of drivers to spin at the tricky Clark
chicane midway round the lap, which also caught out Rubens
Barrichello, Ralf Schumacher and Jordans third driver Robert
Doornbos.
The morning session had been virtually incident-free, but there
were spins aplenty in the afternoon as the tempo rose and drivers
began to explore the limit around the high-speed, low-grip parkland
circuit.
Barrichello had a number of off-course excursions en route to the
ninth quickest time, just behind BARs Jenson Button, who kept it
on the island but was not especially quick.
Ricardo Zonta was the fastest of the Toyotas in 11th place, just
ahead of race drivers Schumacher (13th) and Jarno Trulli
(14th).
After a glorious first practice sortie Red Bull Racing came down to
earth this afternoon. David Coulthard posted the 12th-best time,
but his young team-mates Christian Klien and Vitantonio Liuzzi
blotted their copybooks with spins that embedded them in the kitty
litter.
Once again, Minardi played no part in the proceedings and it looks
increasingly unlikely that F1s minnows will be granted the
permission they need to campaign their 2004-spec chassis.
Friday second practice times from Melbourne
1. DE LA ROSA McLaren 1m25.376s
2. RAIKKONEN McLaren 1m25.676s
3. HEIDFELD Williams 1m25.940s
4. M.SCHUMACHER Ferrari 1m26.081s
5. MONTOYA McLaren 1m26.227s
6. MASSA Sauber 1m26.357s
7. ALONSO Renault 1m26.562s
8. BUTTON BAR 1m26.611s
9. BARRICHELLO Ferrari 1m26.639s
10. FISICHELLA Renault 1m26.667s
11. ZONTA Toyota 1m26.808s
12. COULTHARD Red Bull 1m27.017s
13. R.SCHUMACHER Toyota 1m27.162s
14. TRULLI Toyota 1m27.195s
15. WEBBER Williams 1m27.329s
16. VILLENEUVE Sauber 1m27.513s
17. KLIEN Red Bull 1m27.544s
18. SATO BAR 1m27.891s
19. KARTHIKEYAN Jordan 1m28.168s
20. DOORNBOS Jordan 1m28.620s
21. LIUZZI Red Bull 1m28.926s
22. MONTEIRO Jordan 1m29.671s
23. FRIESACHER Minardi no time
24. ALBERS Minardi no time
