Wurz dominates second practice

Alex Wurz underlined McLaren’s superiority by easily claiming the fastest lap in second practice for the European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring today.

The test driver was quickest in the first session this morning and then improved on that effort to hold off a last-gasp charge from Toyota’s Ricardo Zonta.

Wurz’s lap of one minute 30.623 seconds was 0.007secs faster than fellow tester Zonta as Nick Heidfeld followed up his Monaco second place with third today.

Juan Pablo Montoya and Kimi Raikkonen signalled McLaren’s continued strength by ending the session fourth and fifth, with Williams’ Mark Webber taking sixth despite a spin.

Jenson Button finally clocked his first timed laps since the San Marino Grand Prix last month, ending the session 16th for BAR-Honda with David Coulthard’s Red Bull 14th.

World champion Michael Schumacher continued to struggle for outright pace and the Ferrari driver languished in 13th as standings leader Fernando Alonso took eighth.

Mark Webber set the early marker when the session began before Jordan’s Tiago Monteiro spun eight minutes in, stalling his Toyota engine.

Williams were enjoying a productive start to second practice and Nick Heidfeld relieved Webber of top spot soon after.

After 70 minutes of practice, Button finally clocked his first timed lap after biding his time due to fears over his Honda engine. Soon after Christian Klien endured a trip across the grass in his Red Bull after running wide at turn five.

Williams’ good day turned sour after 22 minutes when Webber lost the rear of his car entering turn 11 and slid backwards into the gravel trap.

Things got worse for the BMW-powered squad 10 minutes later when Heidfeld parked his car towards the end of the lap and helped marshals push it back to the pits.

The McLaren pair of Montoya and Raikkonen improved their times with 20 minutes remaining to move into second and third respectively.

Jordan’s difficulties continued when Indian driver Narain Karthikeyan ran very wide at turn 11 and parked on the edge of the track. His car was eventually dragged to safety by a rescue truck although Karthikeyan gesticulated angrily at the marshals for no obvious reason.

With five minutes to go Vitantonio Liuzzi’s session was brought to a premature close when his Red Bull stopped on the run to turn 13.

Those yellow flags restricted drivers in the closing minutes before Wurz completed a fast lap, followed swiftly by Zonta’s effort.

McLaren were on song in first practice as well with Wurz setting the quickest time.

The Austrian’s time of 1min 31.670secs was almost a second clear of Schumacher’s Ferrari while Zonta was marginally further back in third.