Uneventful second Spanish practice

It continued to be dry and fine in Barcelona for the second free practice of the Spanish Grand Prix. The Renaults of Jarno Trulli and Jenson Button were first on the track, followed quickly by others; Jordan's Takuma Sato out in a hurry after losing the earlier practice due to a sensor failure. BAR's Olivier Panis set the first time of the session while Michael Schumacher had a rare mistake in the Ferrari and ran wide onto the grass.

McLaren's David Coulthard also ran wide and pitted after one lap, seeming to have problems with the car. Button was on the pace, up into second and splitting the two Ferraris, just one hundredth of a second off Michael's time until the German improved to a 1:20.380. Panis kept up well into the top ten, as did the Arrows of Heinz-Harald Frentzen, taking sixth fastest, and the Saubers also continued to do well. By half way through Button was the only Michelin runner in the top six.

Jordan seemed to struggle slightly, Giancarlo Fisichella in twelfth after his good first session, as did Jacques Villeneuve who was no where near on the pace of team mate Panis. Arrows looked a lot stronger, Frentzen up into second behind Schumacher and Enrique Bernoldi in fifth. Jaguar continued to be disappointing, Pedro de la Rosa towards the back of the field along with the Minardis and the Toyotas although Eddie Irvine improved towards the end of the session.

Jarno Trulli took to the gravel in the closing minutes but managed to regain the track in what was a very uneventful second practice. At the finish only three Michelin runners were in the top ten, Button, Raikkonen and Trulli; Williams were back down in fifteenth and seventeenth while Coulthard was twelfth. Final top six classification: M. Schumacher, Frentzen, Button, Barrichello, Panis, Bernoldi.