Zonta was quickest of all in the second Friday session at Monza, his 1m20.531s lap just 0.33s slower than McLaren test driver Pedro de la Rosa’s pace-setting time from the earlier morning practice.

“We are well prepared for the weekend after a three-day test here at Monza last week,” Zonta explained, “but it was still a useful day for me and I completed the equivalent of a race distance today. The car was sliding quite a lot in the first session but we found more grip in the second hour and made some worthwhile progress.”

Monza is the most demanding circuit on the calendar for engines, with more than 70% of the 5.793km lap done at full throttle. Followed as it is by another high-speed circuit, Spa-Francorchamps, the new for 2005 two-race engine rule means that these two circuits present the Cologne team’s engine department with its toughest challenge. The test last week, however, at least enabled some of the regular Friday tasks, such as gear ratio selection to be done in advance.

Juan Pablo Montoya (1m21.583s) and Kimi Raikkonen (1m21.735s) were third and fourth quickest for Team McLaren Mercedes, while the BMW Williams F1 Team cars of Mark Webber (1m21.816s) and Nick Heidfeld (1m22.107s) were fifth and sixth. Panasonic Toyota Racing’s race drivers, Jarno Trulli (1m22.278s) and Ralf Schumacher (1m23.126s) finished the day in 8th and 15th positions respectively.

“Monza is very high speed and you run with very little wing,” Trulli explained, “and so you need good aero efficiency as well as good performance under braking and strong traction out of the chicanes. The test last week showed that a lot of teams looked pretty competitive but I think we should be in reasonable shape to score points.”

Ralf Schumacher added: “It was a normal Friday for us except that we had the advantage of the data from the same circuit that we are racing on from last week’s test. We could therefore focus on confirming the tyre selection that we expect to make for the race. I think that choice is fairly clear and we had no particular problems.”

Chief race engineer Dieter Gass said: “We had an incident-free day and I think it was apparent that some of the leading teams were conserving mileage in the aftermath of last week’s test. I am confident that we are in a good position to make our tyre choice and concentrate on the demands Monza places on us in terms of engines, braking and good performance on the kerbs at the chicanes that are a feature of the Monza lap.”