• Canadian Grand Prix - FP2

Alonso edges Hamilton to fastest time in Friday practice

Fernando Alonso impressed in FP2 while Sebastian Vettel struggled © Sutton Images

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• Race:
• Canadian Grand Prix

• Drivers:
• Fernando Alonso
• |
• Romain Grosjean
• |
• Lewis Hamilton

• Teams:
• Ferrari

Fernando Alonso edged Lewis Hamilton to the fastest time in the second practice session for the Canadian Grand Prix after the rain just about held off for the full 90 minutes.

After a wet morning session, the teams set to work testing Pirelli's new tyre for the British Grand Prix that features a Kevlar belt at the rear. Alonso completed the most laps with an impressive 48 in 90 minutes, but his best lap came on the super-soft tyre midway through the session. Hamilton's time was set on his second lap on the super-softs and was just 0.012s off Alonso's best as both drivers look set for competitive weekends.

Romain Grosjean was third fastest for Lotus, 0.265s off Alonso, and ahead of Red Bull's Mark Webber in fourth, who set his time slightly earlier in the session than the three drivers ahead of him. Nico Rosberg was fifth fastest in the second Mercedes and fractionally quicker than Felipe Massa and Sebastian Vettel in sixth and seventh. Vettel was one of the first to switch to the super-softs and did not hook up a clean lap at any point, suggesting there is more time to be found from his Red Bull.

Adrian Sutil kept his Force India in the hunt with the eighth fastest time, just 0.578s off Alonso, while team-mate Paul di Resta, who was quickest in the wet/dry FP1 session, was nearly a further half second off his team-mate and in 13th place.

McLaren's Jenson Button was ninth fastest, just about in contention with cars in the front - 0.604s off Alonso - and comfortably quicker than team-mate Sergio Perez in 12th. Daniel Ricciardo rounded off the top ten after another promising day for Toro Rosso while Kimi Raikkonen, who was 11th overall, finished the session early with his mechanics investigating a problem on his car.

Sauber had a disappointing afternoon and ended the day 17th and 18th, although Nico Hulkenberg lost time having his front brakes changed midway through the session. At the foot of the timesheets, Jules Bianchi impressed again with a time just 2.252s off Alonso and a couple of tenths faster than rival Charles Pic in the Caterham.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.