De la Rosa puts McClaren in charge

Pedro de la Rosa gave McLaren a clean sweep of fastest times in practice for the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal today.

McLaren have enjoyed a performance advantage over world championship rivals Renault over the last four races and de la Rosa’s times in both practice sessions today suggested that will continue.

The Spanish test driver set a best time of one minute 14.662 seconds to outpace Toyota counterpart Ricardo Zonta by 0.196secs.

Despite their advantage over the last four races, McLaren have only won two after problems forced Kimi Raikkonen to retire at Imola and Nurburgring.

Renault’s Fernando Alonso has been able to take advantage to open up a 32-point lead in the standings and he looks likely to be Raikkonen’s biggest threat again after setting third fastest time today.

Juan Pablo Montoya emphasised McLaren’s position of strength by taking fourth while Raikkonen was fifth and Renault’s Giancarlo Fisichella sixth.

Jenson Button offered hope of an improvement in BAR-Honda’s fortunes by posting the seventh fastest time but David Coulthard’s quest for more points looks tricky after the Red Bull driver found himself down in 17th.

Narain Karthikeyan responded to morning criticism from team chief Colin Kolles by spinning his Jordan early in the session.

Montoya enjoyed top spot early on but Alonso put his Renault clear with 15 minutes gone. De la Rosa gave McLaren the edge as the halfway mark approached while Zonta moved his Toyota into second.

With half of the session gone, Toyota’s Jarno Trulli ran wide across the grass before Scott Speed spoiled his Formula One debut with a spin.

The American, called up to Red Bull as third driver for Canada and Indianapolis, had performed well in first practice to outpace team-mates Christian Klien and Coulthard.

But he caught the eye for all the wrong reasons when he spun and stalled his car at turn four, ending his session early.

Jacques Villeneuve was welcomed back to Canada by further criticism of his performances by team boss Peter Sauber this week and he struggled to silence his critics in practice.

The former world champion did not lack effort, locking up at the hairpin with 15 minute to go before cutting the final chicane on the same lap.

With time running out, Alonso jumped up to second to give Renault hope of a second consecutive victory.

De la Rosa set the fastest time in the opening one-hour session to hold off Zonta. The Spaniard’s time of 1min 16.415secs was 0.169secs quicker than Zonta’s effort.

Raikkonen was third fastest to set the quickest time from a race driver and reinforce McLaren’s supremacy at this stage in the season.