Raikkonen steals Alonso's thunder in FP2

Until Raikkonen's last gasp lap, Alonso looked set to end the day at the top of the timesheets, having leapt to the front of the field on the supersoft Bridgestones with four minutes remaining, only for the reigning champion to pip him by 0.020 seconds in the closing moments.

Jenson Button took a shock third for Honda, having also put in a last minute soft tyre lap. Felipe Massa (Ferrari) and Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) completed the top five.

After McLaren had led the way for much of first practice, this time it was Ferrari who proved superior for the majority of the afternoon, having put in soft tyre runs relatively early.

With 15 minutes to go, Raikkonen and Massa sat first and second in the order, just 0.001 seconds apart. Alonso and Button briefly disturbed their command of the session, before Raikkonen restored Ferrari's advantage with his final lap.

McLaren had a more conservative afternoon, with Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen fifth and sixth.

Timo Glock again impressed as he took seventh for Toyota, having earlier run in the top three. Robert Kubica (BMW) and Nelson Piquet (Renault) took eighth and ninth, ahead of a surprise performance by Giancarlo Fisichella.

Both Force Indias had been in the top half of the field for much of the afternoon, with the veteran Italian ultimately taking 10th.

As had been the case in the morning, most of the drivers managed to stay out of trouble despite the circuit's relatively tight confines and its slippery nature.

Many took a trip down the Turn 2 run-off, while Nico Rosberg had the most attention-grabbing incident when he spun his Williams at the final corner and was only narrowly avoided by Mark Webber's Red Bull, shortly after having set an early fastest time while on supersoft tyres.

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time              Laps
 1.  Raikkonen     Ferrari             (B)  1:39.477           30
 2.  Alonso        Renault             (B)  1:39.497 + 0.020   39
 3.  Button        Honda               (B)  1:39.546 + 0.069   35
 4.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:39.678 + 0.201   31
 5.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:39.712 + 0.235   31
 6.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:39.954 + 0.477   30
 7.  Glock         Toyota              (B)  1:39.967 + 0.490   32
 8.  Kubica        BMW Sauber          (B)  1:40.149 + 0.672   35
 9.  Piquet        Renault             (B)  1:40.439 + 0.962   32
10.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:40.500 + 1.023   23
11.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:40.585 + 1.108   24
12.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:40.607 + 1.130   34
13.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:40.696 + 1.219   23
14.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:40.742 + 1.265   34
15.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)  1:40.877 + 1.400   32
16.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:40.982 + 1.505   36
17.  Sutil         Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:40.999 + 1.522   32
18.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber          (B)  1:41.084 + 1.607   35
19.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:41.246 + 1.769   38
20.  Barrichello   Honda               (B)  1:41.377 + 1.900   31