Schumacher's car is towed away after a 100mph spin at Parabolica

Seven-times world champion Schumacher had to settle for 12th fastest after spinning out of control at Parabolica.

The McLarens of Juan Pablo Montoya and title challenger Kimi Raikkonen dominated the session, with only Toyota test driver Ricardo Zonta faster.

Zonta clocked one minute 20.531 seconds, 1.052secs ahead of Montoya.

Raikkonen was third after clocking 1:21.735, while the Williams duo of Mark Webber and Nick Heidfeld were the best of the rest.

The Renaults of Giancarlo Fisichella and Alonso were down in ninth and 10th, with the Toyota of Ralf Schumacher 14th after his own trundle off track at Ascari.

We've had nothing to lose and we can only gain now for the rest of the year McLaren driver Kimi Raikkonen

Jenson Button was 18th for BAR and David Coulthard 19th for Red Bull Racing, with the British duo almost three seconds off the pace.

McLaren duo Raikkonen and Montoya are expected to dominate in Italy as they seek to eat into Renault's lead of nine points in the constructors' championship.

But Raikkonen insists the team still face an uphill battle to reel in the French leaders with just five races left.

"It would be good for us to win the next five races, but it's going to be hard," said the Finn.

"It all depends on what happens to Renault that makes the difference to how well we will do in the races.

"But for a long time we've had nothing to lose and we can only gain now for the rest of the year."

In the morning, test driver Pedro de la Rosa underlined the power of the McLaren car when he set a time of 1:20.201, almost a second quicker than the lap record set by Rubens Barrichello in the Ferrari on his way to winning last year's race.

After his crash, Schumacher could only watch on as the McLaren cars continued to reign supreme on the 3.6mile Monza circuit in the afternoon.

Midway through the second hour-long session, the rear end of his car got away from him at Parabolica and he ended up spinning across the gravel and backwards into the tyres.

Friday free practice times:

* indicates test drivers

Second session
1. Ricardo Zonta * (Brz) Toyota one minute 20.531 seconds
2. Juan Pablo Montoya (Col) McLaren-Mercedes 1:21.583
3. Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) McLaren-Mercedes 1:21.735
4. Pedro de la Rosa * (Sp) McLaren-Mercedes 1:21.922
5. Mark Webber (Aus) Williams-BMW 1:22.032
6. Nick Heidfeld (Ger Williams-BMW 1:22.107
7. Vitantonio Liuzzi *(It) Red Bull 1:22.253
8. Jarno Trulli (It) Toyota 1:22.278
9. Giancarlo Fisichella (It) Renault 1:22.440
10. Fernando Alonso (Sp) Renault 1:22.594
11. Christian Klien (Aut) Red Bull 1:22.600
12. Michael Schumacher (Ger) Ferrari 1:22.749
13. Felipe Massa (Bra) Sauber-Petronas 1:23.052
14. Ralf Schumacher (Ger) Toyota 1:23.126
15. Jacques Villeneuve (Can) Sauber-Petronas 1:23.208
16. Rubens Barrichello (Brz) Ferrari 1:23.213
17. Takuma Sato (Jpn) BAR-Honda 1:23.223
18. Jenson Button (GB) BAR-Honda 1:23.415
19. David Coulthard (GB) Red Bull 1:23.506
20. Tiago Monteiro (Pot Jordan 1:23.994
21. Narain Karthikeyan (Ind) Jordan 1:24.202
22. Robert Doornbos (Ned) Minardi 1:24.233
23. Christijan Albers (Ned) Minardi 1:24.264
24. Enrico Toccacelo * (It) Minardi 1:25.245
25. Nicolas Kiesa *(Den) Jordan