Schumacher junior is rumoured to be on his way out at the end of the season even though he has a contract until the end of 2004 to be replaced by Jordan’s Giancarlo Fisichella.

The German did his cause little good when, just after setting the fastest time, he skidded out of control and hit a tyre barrier damaging his front wing.

Schumacher missed over half-an-hour of the final 45-minute session and eventually saw Barrichello take top spot by fractions of a second.

Jaguar’s Mark Webber shrugged off technical problems which meant he was unable to post a time in the first session of the morning to finish third fastest.

The Australian who is having a fine season even though he is yet to score a point was just over 0.1 secs adrift of Barrichello while Jaguar team-mate Antonio Pizzonia finished bottom of the time-sheets.

Championship leader Kimi Raikkonen, fastest in first practice this morning, slipped to fourth after the break in his McLaren although he was just fractions slower than Webber.

Five-time champion Michael Schumacher posted the fifth best time in his Ferrari although he will be last out on the track in qualifying later today after clocking the best time yesterday.

Schumacher was given a ticking off in the drivers’ briefing yesterday for ignoring the double yellow warning flags in Brazil two weeks ago and crashing out.

Renault’s Fernando Alonso, sixth quickest today, was also reprimanded by Race Director Charlie Whiting for the same misdemeanour in Sao Paulo.

David Coulthard was seventh fastest for McLaren while Jenson Button was 12th in the BAR-Honda.

Ralph Firman finished 16th in his Jordan-Honda with Justin Wilson 19th for Minardi.