• Canadian Grand Prix - FP2

Hamilton quickest again in Montreal

Lewis Hamilton was quickest in both sessions on Friday © Press Association

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• Race:
• Canadian Grand Prix

• Drivers:
• Fernando Alonso
• |
• Lewis Hamilton
• |
• Felipe Massa

• Teams:
• Ferrari
• |
• McLaren

Lewis Hamilton confirmed his status as pre-race favourite by setting the fastest time of the second practice session for the Canadian Grand Prix.

Having set the quickest time of FP1, Hamilton repeated the performance in the afternoon with a best time of 1:15.259 set on the supersoft tyres. His lap was set earlier in the session, while Ferrari waited until later to put on the supersofts, allowing Fernando Alonso to set the second fastest time just 0.054s slower than Hamilton.

Felipe Massa was third quickest - 0.0151s off Hamilton's time - as both Ferrari drivers opted to run an updated exhaust configuration similar to that used by McLaren. In another close session, Sebastian Vettel was fourth ahead of Paul di Resta, with Pastor Maldonado in 13th place just 0.7s away from the quickest time of the day.

It was another session punctuated by a red flag period, however, as Bruno Senna hit the 'Wall of Champions' to cause a ten minute delay.

With rain forecast for the session, the teams were keen to get out on track early on to get as much dry running done as possible. Pushing hard to make the most of the time, mistakes were commonplace as drivers outbraked themselves and Alonso was lucky to not sustain any damage when he spun at turn nine. Under braking he put two wheels on the grass and spun round twice before fortunately catching the car and rejoining.

Senna caused a red flag with 40 minutes of the session to go, losing the rear in the final chicane and span backwards in to the 'Wall of Champions', heavily damaging his car. Other errors came from di Resta and Mark Webber, while Alonso, Vettel and Hamilton all ran across the grass at turn nine having put two wheels off-track under braking as well.

Jenson Button's troubles in FP1 were compounded when he required a gearbox change that kept him in the garage for the majority of the session. He only joined the track with 18 minutes left but managed to make the most of his running to complete 14 laps and set the seventh fastest time.

After his accident in the morning, Heikki Kovalainen didn't take to the track until 35 minutes in to the session, but still managed to complete 24 laps.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.