Button shining again

Jenson Button again suggested he poses a strong threat to Ferrari’s dominance by posting the fastest time of second free practice at Imola.

Button finished top of the standings in the afternoon session, although it was Michael Schumacher who clocked the quickest time of the day from the hour-long morning run.

Button, who has claimed a podium third-place finish in the last two races in Malaysia and Bahrain, delivered a time of one minute 20.966 seconds around the 4.933km track in his BAR.

Team-mate Takuma Sato and Schumacher were both just under two 10ths of a second adrift of the 24-year-old, although the latter was comfortably faster in the morning with a 1min 20.084secs in the seemingly unstoppable Ferrari.

Schumacher has so far won all three races this season from pole to lead the world championship by nine points from his team-mate, Rubens Barrichello, who had to settle for 11th in the afternoon after claiming second in the morning.

Kimi Raikkonen, yet to score a point this season for McLaren, wound up fourth, with Jarno Trulli in his Renault fifth and Anthony Davidson in the spare BAR again proving he is a talent for the future with sixth.

Juan Pablo Montoya was quickest of the Williams-BMW duo, while the second Renault of Fernando Alonso was eighth, with David Coulthard down in ninth with a time of 1min 21.795secs.