Alonso took fourth and Trulli fifth, followed by Fisichella in sixth. Sato and Coulthard were next in line, with Monteiro and Klien making up the top ten. Coulthard then improved to seventh and Button slotted in behind for eighth. Barrichello moved up to 10th from the midfield, then stayed out for another lap and gained eighth.

Button climbed to sixth and Pizzonia took ninth, then Webber clocked third on his first flyer of the session. Villeneuve posted 13th and Sauber teammate Felipe Massa was having a very quiet morning in 17th after only a few laps. Alonso wound up a flyer and set fastest sectors across the board to clock 1:21.548, half a second up on Raikkonen.

Raikkonen replied with another lap of fastest sectors and posted 1:20.916 for six tenths up. Now Michael in third was nearly a second off the pace of Alonso. Barrichello improved to sixth and Trulli to fifth, then Montoya took the second spot from Alonso, four tenths off Raikkonen. Doornbos made a good effort for 13th in front of Sato.

Sato hurled his BAR up to third and Webber went up to fifth but there were still few laps being put in. Villeneuve improved to eighth but Massa was down in 19th, a strange morning for Sauber. Not a good one for Jordan either as Karthikeyan went off track at Grand Curve and hit the barrier. He was uninjured.

Fisichella improved to fourth and Massa made a bit of an effort for 15th, while Klien made a bigger one for eighth. At the end of the session Raikkonen and Montoya remained at the top with Sato and Alonso not too far behind. Evidently McLaren looks the team to beat but the rest were a bit few and far between.

There was not really any consistent lapping to make any comparisons but Renault, BAR and Toyota were all pretty much solidly in the top ten. It looks like a certainty that a McLaren will be on pole, barring any peculiarities.