Practice 2 Report - Button underlines BAR speed

Jenson Button dominated the second session of practice at Imola, underlining the new-found speed of the BAR-Honda. Kimi Raikkonen was second fastest in the McLaren while Rubens Barrichello was third fastest for Ferrari but he was nearly a second behind.

In the dying minutes of the session Pedro de la Rosa gave the third McLaren a low-fuel run and moved to the top of the timesheets but the were clear signs that the BAR-Honda is going to be very tough to beat this weekend. A lot will depend on qualifying because the starting position is important as the track is expected to improve with each qualifying run and so the BARs and McLarens need a good result in first qualifying on Saturday afternoon to be in with a chance for glory in the second qualifying session on Sunday morning.

The Friday afternoon session saw Kimi Raikkonen third quickest for McLaren although he was six-tenths behind Button's best lap while Toyota test driver Ricardo Zonta was fourth ahead of Fernando Alonso's Renault, the Ferraris of Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello, Alexander Wurz in the second McLaren and the top 10 completed by Giancarlo Fisichella's Renault and the BAR-Honda of Takuma Sato.