Montagny turned in another strong performance for the Super Aguri team, albeit without the shackles of tyre restrictions and engine wear to worry about. The Frenchman also had to bounce back from problems in the first session, which saw him complete a paltry six laps. Second time around, he racked up his last 20 tours for SA
F1, and proved a match for the more restricted Schumacher brothers.
If Schumacher Sr and Alonso managed top ten spots, however, their respective team-mates -
Felipe Massa and
Giancarlo Fisichella - could only achieve 17th and twelfth respectively. The Italian was a tenth or two shy of Alonso, but Massa was nearly a second adrift of the lead
Ferrari, despite completing 15 laps.
BMW Sauber, too, was a little way off its usual positions, with
Robert Kubica and
Nick Heidfeld managing 16th and 18th, but will have left the majority of its work to third-placed Vettel.
Likewise,
Williams will be hoping that Wurz's mileage provides clues to set-up and performance, with
Mark Webber only 19th and
Nico Rosberg 23rd, mixed in with the Spykers. Tiago Monteiro proved to the quickest of the Dutch-owned cars, in 15th spot, with rookie Ernesto Viso pushing Webber hard at the tail of the top 20, and Christijan Albers heading Rosberg in 22nd.
Worse still,
Red Bull Racing regulars
David Coulthard and Robert Doornbos were only 24th and 28th, although the Dutch driver did have problems that curtailed his afternoon after just eight laps. The pair neatly book-ended Toro Rosso stable-mates Tonio Liuzzi,
Scott Speed and Neel Jani, who found their restricted V10s strangled a little more by the Interlagos altitude.
Sakon Yamamoto brought up the rear for
Super Aguri, managing just nine laps, but the team could at least bank on 27 tours from
Takuma Sato to add to those racked up by Toyota-bound Montagny.
