Williams test driver Alex Wurz was fastest in second practice for the Chinese Grand Prix as the he completed a clean sweep of the day's sessions.

CRI Special: 2001 F1 Season

The 32-year-old Austrian stalled in the pit-lane at the start of the session, but was always there or thereabouts during the afternoon and eventually put in a blistering lap of 1:35.539 as the chequered flag was flown at the end of the hour.

Wurz's performance was all the more impressive as rain had started to fall with 10 minutes to go and looked set to guarantee Brazilian Felipe Massa the top spot for Ferrari.

The lap time, which was only fractionally quicker than he had gone in the morning session, was good enough to rob German teenager Sebastian Vettel of the top spot after the BMW Sauber test driver had gone fastest less than 30 seconds earlier.

Amazingly, despite this being only Vettel's third time as the German team's third driver, it is the first time he has ended Friday without being fastest in at least one of the two sessions.

Third was Britain's Anthony Davidson in a Honda, with Ferrari duo Massa and German Michael Schumacher the first of the race drivers – just over a second away from the benchmark time of Wurz.

Sixth was defending world champion Fernando Alonso, who desperately needs to end Schumacher's recent run of form with a win here this weekend.

It was clear to see how hard the 25-year-old Spaniard was trying as he spun his Renault in the final minute of the session at turn one and was narrowly missed by Vettel.

Behind Alonso, Frenchman Franck Montagny was the star of the session as he wound up seventh for Super Aguri – the highest one of the Japanese-owned team's cars has even been in an official Formula One session.

German Michael Ammermuller and Frenchman Alex Premat, who are both making their debuts as third drivers with Red Bull and Spyker-Midland respectively this weekend, were also impressive in eighth and 15th.

It was a bad day for Toro Rosso though, as first test driver Neel Jani stopped on-track with a mechanical problem, and then Vitantonio Liuzzi spun late on.