Da Matta quickest in French practice

Cristiano da Matta left it late to take top spot in second practice for the French Grand Prix after a day interrupted by bad weather.

Da Matta quickest in French practice

Cristiano da Matta left it late to take top spot in second practice for the French Grand Prix after a day interrupted by bad weather.

Jarno Trulli had looked certain to be the fastest man from the session after rain came just after his best lap but da Matta waited until the last seconds to better his effort.

The Brazilian's time of one minute 15.518seconds was 0.688secs quicker than Monaco Grand Prix winner Trulli.

Like da Matta, BAR test driver Anthony Davidson waited until the end of the session to clock his best effort and took third spot.

Button - second when the rain returned - was bumped down to fourth place in his BAR.  World champion Michael Schumacher recorded exactly the same time as Button but had to make do with fifth as he set his lap after the Englishman.

Scotland's David Coulthard gave the new McLaren an encouraging debut with seventh place, less than a second down on da Matta despite setting his time on a damper track.

Marc Gene, who is standing in for the injured Ralf Schumacher at Williams, recorded more laps than any other race driver with the best of his 17 efforts putting him 14th.

Today's first practice was rendered largely irrelevant after rain early in the one-hour session hampered any attempts to set quick times.

The drama was restricted to Juan Pablo Montoya's hefty accident after half an hour. Montoya was one of the few front-runners to go out on the wet track and he quickly came a cropper, losing control of his Williams under braking and bouncing at high speed through a gravel trap.

Montoya was fortunate not to roll over after flying through the air and digging into the wet gravel. His car eventually thudded to a halt with three of its four corners showing considerable damage.

The Jordan trio of tester Timo Glock, Giorgio Pantano and Nick Heidfeld were fourth, fifth and sixth respectively after benefiting from their decision to hit the track early.