Perfect day for de la Rosa

Pedro de la Rosa made it a perfect day’s work in Shanghai by collecting the best time in second practice of 1:32.834, to add to his top time from this morning’s session. Toyota's Ricardo Zonta was second and rivals Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso were 3 and 4.

The McLaren driver set his lap late in the session to deny Toyota’s Ricardo Zonta the top spot by 0.143 seconds. Third and fourth in the final standings were season-long rivals Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso, who were both more than a second back from de la Rosa, but only 0.14 seconds apart from each other. This may be the final race of the season, but the battle between these two drivers looks set to go down to the very last lap of 2005.

The second practice session was held in similar conditions to the first, with low-lying fog and mist covering the track, with air temperature hanging in the low twenties. The trickiest parts of the track remained the tightening first section of corners, and Turn 14, the hardest braking zone of the track at the end of the back straight. While the first corners saw many spinners, Turn 14 saw almost every team and driver experience a lock-up or a moment running wide.

Back up front, Montoya took fifth ahead of Barrichello and Giancarlo Fisichella in the second Renault F1 Team car. Mark Webber, Jenson Button and Felipe Massa made up the remainder of the top ten.

Christian Klien appeared to hit some debris as he braked for the infamous Turn 14, as his rear right tyre took the brunt of the impact and immediately delaminated. Bad luck also befell Antonio Pizzonia, who brought his Williams back to the pits with what appeared to be broken rear suspension. Jarno Trulli ended his session early too, as his car ground to a halt in the final five minutes. The Italian was left to push his Toyota off the track by himself.

All eyes now move to tomorrow and the all important qualifying session to determine grid position. As it has proved to be all season, this one looks like its going to be a close-run affair.