Toyota’s Friday tester Ricardo Zonta was perched at the top of the timing screen with less than two minutes to go in the session.

McLaren though removed fuel from the Spaniard’s MP4/20 and let him loose in the final few minutes of the one hour session only to see him set a time (1:18.530) .434 seconds faster than Zonta.

Juan Pablo Montoya ended up as the fastest race driver in the session with a third place time of 1:20.252.

His McLaren team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, who is running a lower step Mercedes-Benz engine this weekend, finished in third position (1:20.384) 1.854 seconds behind de la Rosa.

Toyota looks to be in good shape for the rest of the weekend as drivers Ralf Schumacher (1:20.602) and Jarno Trulli (1:20.816) ended the session in fifth and sixth places.

Championship leader Fernando Alonso is taking a conservative approach to the weekend due to McLaren’s recent resurgence. Alonso ended the day in seventh position, 2.460 seconds behind de la Rosa’s time.

Ferrari had a slow afternoon as Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello finished the session in tenth and 15th positions.

Britain’s own Jenson Button ended the session in 11th position after finishing the morning practice session in third position.