Having completed the most laps today so far, Button's comes to a sickening halt in an accident in the second sector, the session is red-flagged. Coming out of the tunnel the BAR appeared to veer across the track before hitting the wall.

The medical team surrounds the car and tarpaulins are raised to keep out prying eyes and lenses, the Englishman remains in the car. After an agonizing wait the youngster is lifted from the car and rushed by ambulance to hospital, there is an ominous silence all around the circuit.

At this point Bob Constanduros calls from the track to say that Jenson is being attended by Professor Sid Watkins and is fully conscious and seems OK, though he's obviously badly shaken. It seems he lost the car under braking and went sideways into the wall, almost a carbon-copy repeat of Karl Wendlinger's crash in '94.

However the session resumes, this is Formula One and the show must go on.

Clearly undaunted or inspired by Button's accident, Raikkonen posts a 1:15.604 he's now a second faster than his closest rival Montoya. Schumacher sets a personal best in sector one but his second sector his poor, he'll have to have another go.

1:15.915 and Ralf goes second as Barrichello too improves and goes third as fellow Brazilian Cristiano da Matta posts a personal best time to go seventeenth, ahead of Alonso.

1:15.156 and 2002 winner David Coulthard goes quickest 0.4s quicker than his team-mate, we're almost into the 1:14 barrier.

da Matta goes thirteenth, the Toyota is clearly a dog of a car but both drivers are giving it 101%. Talking of dogs, the poor old Minardi boys are still attempting to keep in touch, Jos is 3.6s off the pace while Justin is a full five seconds of Coulthard's benchmark. Next time around the Englishman improves, he's now 3.7s off the pace, but still twentieth.

At this point the order is: Coulthard, Raikkonen, Barrichello, Ralf, Montoya, Webber, Schumacher, Trulli, Villeneuve and Jenson.

Alonso is still in the pits, the Spaniard has only completed 9 laps today, and none in this session. Following an incident in this morning's first session his crew have been working on the car.

Fisichella improves his time but remains thirteenth as Coulthard sets a best time in sector one, are we going to see a sub 1:14 lap? Yes!!! 1:17.747 the Scotsman is now 0.857s quicker than his team-mate, this is quite astonishing especially when you consider that a few minutes ago we were fearing for another racer's life.

1:15.673 and Jarno Trulli goes third as Montoya goes second with a 1:15.360. Michael Schumacher is on track however he can't make an impression on Coulthard's time even though he's setting personal bests.

Fernando Alonso is on track he improves little by little, he posts a 1:17.290 to go thirteenth as Webber reclaims sixth position.

BAR's misery is compounded as Villeneuve comes to a halt in sector two, meanwhile Wilson has leap-frogged his team-mate. The French-Canadian has had a 'difference of opinion' with the infamous barriers, thankfully he's fine and out of the car. Again, thankfully there is no repeat of Spa 1999 when Zonta and Villeneuve both had virtually identical crashes.. the Canadian subsequently asking his mechanics whose was best.

1:15.517 and Trulli goes third, Michelin runners now fill the first four positions as Ralf goes third ahead of his team-mate.

Oh oh! Michael is on track and posts best time in sector one.. his second sector is a personal best but not best of day, over the line it's 1:15.255, he goes third albeit 0.5s off Coulthard's pace.

The session ends with 2002 winner David Coulthard topping the timesheets ahead of Montoya, Schumacher, Ralf, Trulli, Raikkonen, Barrichello, Webber, Fisichella and Villeneuve.

The Michelin runners dominate but Schumacher's last minute charge gives the Bridgestone mob a glimmer of hope. However as we look ahead to this afternoon's qualifying session the main image in our minds of this morning's session is Jenson Button's horrendous accident.