Juan Pablo said: "I am pretty happy, today went quite well and we did a lot of work with the set-up. I am still struggling a bit with the balance of the car but it is getting better and better. I feel a lot more comfortable than last year and the car is a lot more competitive. I think there is still more to come and we will make further improvements by Saturday. We usually do."

In somewhat of a surprise it would be Renault’s Jarno Trulli who would set the fastest time in an eventful second practice session at Monte Carlo this afternoon. Trulli would take the fastest time in the final stages of the session from Toyota’s very quick learning Allan McNish who finished with a 1m:19.361.

Trulli would say: "It was a good performance today, and I really want to thank the team for all their work. The conditions here are extremely difficult, but we didn't have any problems at all. I'm pleased with the handing of the car - there's still more speed to find, but on this circuit, you need to be happy with the car before you can really push, and I was able to do so straight away. Now I want to confirm this performance, not just in qualifying, but most importantly during the race on Sunday!"

The session would see both Yoong and Irvine crash into the barriers. In the case of Yoong he would crash his Minardi rearward into the barriers at Rascasse, while Irvine lost his car on the oil left by the Arrows of Enrique Bernoldi at Casino and also crashed rearward into the barriers. Both drivers were unhurt.

David Coulthard once again showed that he has a setup that should see him perform well again at Monaco by finishing the day with third fastest, ahead of Jordan's Giancarlo Fisichella who came back from his mechanical problems of this morning to set a competitive 1:19.680.

The fact that Toyota's McNish was second was backed up by McNish’s team-mate Mika Salo taking the fifth best time, followed by BMW-Williams man Ralf Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello. Minardi’s Mark Webber also learnt the ropes quickly in his PS02, taking the eighth best time, a 1:20.028.

Juan-Pablo Montoya in the second BMW-Williams was ninth, ahead of Renault's Jenson Button. Button was to suffer from tyre problems during the session and would his the barriers latter in the session.

Way down the order came Ferrari's Michael Schumacher. He would finish the day in eleventh. Next came BAR’s Olivier Panis in twelfth, followed by Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Jacques Villeneuve, and Sauber drivers Nick Heidfeld and Felipe Massa.