Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa topped the times after Friday’s incident-filled second practice session for Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix, but his efforts for McLaren were overshadowed by a massive accident involving his Colombian teammate Juan Pablo Montoya.
Montoya, driving a McLaren, spun off the track at the high-speed ninth turn, his car colliding with the barriers and losing its right rear wheel and suffering heavy damage to the rear wing, engine and other areas.
The driver, back after missing two races with a shoulder injury, was able to climb out of the cockpit and walk away, but he appeared to be in some pain and this showed when he jumped to remove himself from the circuit.
De la Rosa clocked his best time of one minute and 15,062 seconds less than a minute later in the closing seconds of the session, run in warm sunshine and temperatures of 24 degrees Celsius at the Circuit de Catalunya.
Brazilian Ricardo Zonta was second-fastest in his Toyota by a full 1,1 seconds after an hour’s work in which most of the drivers were trying to make tyre selections.
German Nick Heidfeld in a Williams was third-fastest ahead of Finn Kimi Raikkonen in another McLaren, Italian Jarno Trulli in a Toyota and Briton David Coulthard, who was sixth-quickest in a Red Bull.
Championship-leading home hero Spaniard Fernando Alonso was 10th in his Renault and his great rival, defending champion German Michael Schumacher, was 13th for Ferrari, the pair contenting themselves with working on tyres and set-up without bidding to clock especially fast times.
The session was again riddled with incidents.
Dutchman Christijan Albers spun off in his Minardi in the early stages and he was followed by Austrian Christian Klien in his Red Bull car.
Indian Narain Karthikeyan in a Jordan also left the circuit, but recovered in a cloud of dust before Montoya’s accident brought the session to a spectacular conclusion.
Montoya was returning from a two-race layoff after suffering a hairline fracture to a shoulder.
He was replaced by McLaren’s reserve driver, De la Rosa, who finished fifth in the race in Bahrain, and Austrian Alexander Wurz, who finished fourth in the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola.
At the San Marino Grand Prix, following the exclusion of the BAR-Honda team, Wurz was given third place.
Montoya said his injury was caused by a heavy fall on a tennis court. Others alleged it was caused in other circumstances, including off-road motorcycling. — Sapa-AFP