Wurz to the fore in Bahrain.

McLaren-Mercedes third driver, Alexander Wurz stamped his authority on the second practice session in Bahrain.

The Austrian was over a second up on his closest challenger, Fernando Alonso, while his time was also a good eight tenths quicker than Ricardo Zonta, who was quickest in the first practice session earlier today.

It was an impressive performance, especially as it was his first outing in the new MP4-20, which was modified rather hastily after the Woking based squad were forced to draft in a replacement for the injured Juan Montoya. Granted Alex didn't have to worry about his engine or his tyres, like his team-mates, Pedro de la Rosa and Kimi Raikkonen, but still it shows he has not lost his touch.

After Alonso, who finally posted a time in the second session, came the Red Bull of Vitantonio Liuzzi, with de la Rosa fourth and Michael Schumacher fifth in the new Ferrari. The German may have only been fifth in the second session, but his time from first practice, left him fourth overall on the timesheets.

It wasn't all good news for the Scuderia though and the fact Rubens Barrichello failed to complete a lap in the afternoon session shows the F2005 is not yet as bullet proof as its predecessor.

Jarno Trulli's was next up in sixth for Toyota, around half a second up on his team-mate, Ralf Schumacher, who was tenth. Sandwiched between the two Toyota's was the Renault of Giancarlo Fisichella, McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen and Jenson Button.

Further down the field, you had to look to eleventh and 15th to find the Williams', Nick Heidfeld in front of team-mate, Mark Webber, while Takuma Sato was twelfth, the Japanese driver having a tough day, missing around half the session with mechanical problems.

Of the rest, Christian Klien was 13th in his Red Bull RB1, with Zonta and David Coulthard 14th and 16th respectively. At the back of the pack Minardi again brought up the rear, with Jordan in front, and then the Sauber of Felipe Massa, who again showed up his team-mate Jacques Villeneuve.

Although JV improved he remained way down, and only just managed a low 1min 34secs, something that put him in front of Tiago Monteiro's EJ15, but behind the other two Jordan's of Narain Karthikeyan and Robert Doornbos.

The action now resumes tomorrow [Saturday], at 7am British time.