The longest schedule in F1 history comes to a close with Sunday’s 56-lap race around the impressive 5.451kms Shanghai International Circuit, the second race in China, possibly the world’s most important emerging market.

Zonta lapped in 1m32.977s, which compared with the pace-setting 1m32.834s lap from Team McLaren Mercedes test driver Pedro de la Rosa.

“The track was pretty dusty but once it cleaned up we performed well and I was able to collect a lot of tyre data,” Zonta said.

Race drivers Ralf Schumacher (1m36.051s) and Jarno Trulli (1m36.079s) set the 18th and 19th fastest times of the day.

“There wasn’t a lot of grip at first,” Ralf confirmed, “and I had a harmless spin at the end of the second session, but apart from that it was just a normal Friday. We will get a better idea of where we are tomorrow.”

For Trulli, it was his first time in China, and he lost a bit of time making a change to the car’s balance early in the day. Then, at the end of the session, he stopped out on the circuit with what the team suspected was a minor clutch problem.

“My driving style is quite smooth and sensitive and so I am still getting used to the feel of the new TF105B chassis,” Trulli explained. “After Japan I reported a few problems and straight away the team responded with some new bits for this race, which was very impressive. I still need to do some more work though, so we will have to see where we end up tomorrow.”

The Chinese race not only brings down the final curtain on the season but will also decide the constructors’ championship. The Mild Seven Renault F1 Team heads into it with a slender two-point advantage over McLaren Mercedes, with Panasonic Toyota Racing in a secure fourth place.

Behind De la Rosa and Zonta, seven time ’05 race winner Kimi Raikkonen (1m34.092s) was third quickest, ahead of new world champion Fernando Alonso (1m34.226s). Juan Pablo Montoya (1m34.341s) was fifth quickest with the second McLaren, ahead of Rubens Barrichello’s Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro (1m34.618s) car.

Technical Director, Chassis, Mike Gascoyne, said: “Jarno’s clutch problem stopped him at the end of the session and we will have to investigate that, but we don’t think it’s too serious. We collected a lot of tyre data with Ricardo, who completed his programme and did long comparison runs. We thought it was going to rain towards the end of the session but it held off. The race drivers found a bit too much understeer and so we have a bit of set-up work still to do.”