The Spaniard’s best lap of one minute 32.34 seconds was narrowly faster than Toyota counterpart Ricardo Zonta in second place.

Kimi Raikkonen was the fastest of the race drivers in third, over a second slower than de la Rosa, while Juan Pablo Montoya made it thre McLarens in the top five with fifth.

New world champion Fernando Alonso was pushing hard but overstepped the mark early in the session when he ran wide.

The Spaniard made another uncharacteristic mistake 10 minutes from the end of the session when he ran out of track and skirted through the grass. He hooked up a quick lap later in the session though and took fourth.

Rubens Barrichello offered Ferrari encouragement with sixth place while the second Renault of Giancarlo Fisichella was seventh.

Jenson Button was back in the car today after suffering from a viral infection and he took eighth place.

The BAR-Honda driver was forced to cancel meetings yesterday after being struck down with a bug but he returned and promptly ran wide in the second session as he found the limit on the Shanghai International Circuit.

Fellow Briton David Coulthard also came a cropper at turn two but the Red Bull was unable to keep his car in a straight line as Button had and he spun backwards across the grass. Coulthard ended up 11th.

Antonio Pizzonia’s second practice was a brief one. The Brazilian appeared to lose controland spin but as he limped back to the pits it became clear the rear suspension on his Williams was broken.

Jarno Trulli also saw his session cut short, although he did manage 57 minutes of the hour available. The Italian stopped his Toyota on a disused section of track and was forced to push it aside on his own.

McLaren set the pace in first practice as well when de la Rosa clocked the fastest time of 1min 33.463secs.

Rubens Barrichelo was a surprise second on the eve of his final race for Ferrari before a winter move to BAR-Honda while Toyota tester Ricardo Zonta was third.