Ahead of today's second free practice session, the air temperature has risen to 32 degrees C, while the track temperature is 41 degrees.

As has become the custom in these 'second' sessions on Saturday, nobody appears willing to get the session underway, consequently it is six minutes before a car finally takes to the track, it's Kimi Raikkonen, who is followed by Villeneuve, Monteiro and Karthikeyan. Sato and Michael are also on track.

The Finn posts the benchmark (27.339) but this is quickly beaten by Villeneuve who crosses the line at 1:24.653.

Montoya is on track, the Colombian very fast in the final sector of his warm-up lap. Meanwhile, Sato goes second quickest as Villeneuve improves with a 1:24.391.

The Canadian's glory is short-lived, as Montoya posts 1:21.863 to go quickest. Moments later however, it's Raikkonen that tops the timesheets, the Finn crossing the line at 1:21.527. A 1:22.053 sees Michael go third, ahead of Trulli, Ralf and Sato, as Juan Pablo consolidates second with a 1:21.539.

Heidfeld goes sixth (22.985) ahead of Button and Alonso, as Fisichella posts 1:22.660 to go sixth.

The world Championship leader improves to fourth with a 1:22.071, which means the top four are covered by 0.544s.

Both Fisichella and Button improve, but remain sixth and ninth, respectively. Barrichello is in his garage, having failed to post a time, thus far, the mechanics are swarming over his car. Albers and Doornbos are the only other drivers that have yet to post a time.

AS Button improves (22.797) to eighth, Klien goes ninth, ahead of Heidfeld, Coulthard and Webber. Elsewhere, Rubens Barrichello is finally on track.

The Brazilian immediately goes quickest in the second sector, finally crossing the line at 1:21.266, to take the top spot. Seems like it was worth the wait.

The yellow flags come out as Trulli stops in the second sector, he clearly has a mechanical problem since he didn't go off..

As soon as the flags are stored away, Alonso goes quickest in the first sector, setting a personal best in the second. He crosses the line at 1:21.336, which puts him second, just 0.070s off Barrichello's pace.

This time around however, it's Raikkonen that goes quickest in the first sector, maintaining the pace in the second. At the line it's 1:20.219, the fastest lap of the weekend thus far. However, Montoya isn't beaten, he posts a 1:20.517 to go second.

With fifteen minutes remaining, it's Raikkonen, Montoya, Barrichello, Alonso, Michael, Ralf, Fisichella, Trulli, Button and Heidfeld.

Moments later Heidfeld is nudged out of tenth by Coulthard (22.866), as Button improves to fourth with a 1:21.301.

With ten minutes remaining we enter another 'traditional' phase. Having endured the five minute 'freeze-out' in at the beginning of the session, we now have the lull as the drivers prepare for the final assault on the timesheets, and those last minute set-up changes before this afternoon's all-important qualifying session.

For Kimi the session will be vital, as he is first out this afternoon, and we all know that overtaking is almost impossible during the race here.

With seven minutes remaining, Montoya is back on track, as are Barrichello, Alonso and Michael. One by one the big guns return to the track.

The only drivers not on track, other than Trulli, are Heidfeld, Albers and Webber.

The first improvement sees Michael go third (20.773), while Ralf snatches fourth (20.903).

With three minutes remaining, Kimi goes quickest in the first sector, and again in the second. He crosses the line at 1:20.203, having failed to maintain the pace in the final sector.

Webber improves to tenth (21.889), ahead of Heidfeld, who posts 1:21.918.

The session ends with Raikkonen quickest, ahead of teammate Juan Pablo Montoya. Michael Schumacher is third quickest, ahead of Ralf, Barrichello, Fisichella, Button, Alonso, Sato and Webber.

With the top four covered by 0.700, it looks like we could be in for a very interesting qualifying session.