The McLaren Friday tester used a low fuel load to set the best time (1:14.460) of Friday afternoon practice for the French Grand Prix, equaling his first place in the morning session.

McLaren team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya had a more reasonable set up on his MP4/20, but was still able to take second place with a 1:15.129.

Unfortunately for McLaren’s championship contender, Kimi Raikkonen’s Mercedes-Benz engine exploded just five minutes into practice. He will have to be moved down ten spots from his qualifying position for Sunday’s race.

Michael Schumacher's 1:15.204 set in his Ferrari F2005 was good enough for third place, which gives the Scuderia hope for a good result this weekend.

Ferrari number two driver Rubens Barrichello was about seven tenths behind his team-mate in seventh position.

Renault had an average afternoon with championship leader Fernando Alonso (1:15.242) leading team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella (1:15.380) as they ended the session in fourth and fifth.

Frenchman Oliver Panis, who was given a one off Friday testing role by Toyota, produced a sixth place time of 1:15.483 after pounding out a session high 37 laps.

The other two Toyota drivers, Jarno Trulli (1:15.774) and Ralf Schumacher (1:15.925), settled for eighth and ninth at the end of the hour.

David Coulthard had an impressive tenth place run (1:16.371) in the Red Bull RB1 after going faster than both Williams and BAR cars.

After breaking his left rear suspension by running over the final chicane kerbs during a spin in the morning Tiago Monteiro had a frustrating time in the afternoon. The Portuguese driver ended up dead last (1:19.186) among timed cars in the afternoon hour session after completing 18 laps.

Early in the session Red Bull Racing’s Christian Klien set the fastest first sector time of the session. Soon after in the second sector the Austrian found himself sideways and into the tyre barrier ending his day after completing only five laps.