Alonso stays on top in second practice
Fernando Alonso was quickest again in the second practice session in Monte Carlo
The Ferrari driver completed a clean sweep of the Thursday sessions by beating Mercedes' Nico Rosberg by 0.109 seconds, with Sebastian Vettel third for Red Bull.
After frantic place-swapping early on, Alonso returned to the front of the field with a 1m15.435s on soft tyres 37 minutes into the session, then increased his advantage by going half a second quicker on his next lap.
He stayed there for the rest of the afternoon, as light rain prevented anyone making improvements in the second half of the session.
The rain was never heavy enough to convince anyone to try intermediates, and most stayed out trying to learn what they could in the slightly slippery conditions. There were a number of close calls with the barriers and trips through the escape roads at Sainte Devote and the chicane, but no contact with the barriers despite all the slides.
Having spent much of the morning in the pits, Rosberg completed 38 laps this afternoon to take second, with his team-mate Michael Schumacher fifth behind Vettel and Felipe Massa in the second Ferrari.
Robert Kubica produced some spectacular driving to take Renault to sixth, having been among the many drivers to top the times during the opening half hour.
McLaren's low-key Thursday continued with Lewis Hamilton seventh and Jenson Button ninth, split by Force India's Adrian Sutil. Mark Webber completed the top ten in the second Red Bull, while only 0.8s covered pacesetter Alonso to 11th-placed Vitaly Petrov's Renault.
The second session saw more issues with traffic than the morning had, including an incident in the final corners where Massa appeared to be hanging back to get a clear lap and was caught by Heikki Kovalainen on a flying lap, with the Lotus diving inside the Ferrari and past into the last turn, seemingly to Massa's surprise.
The Finn ended the day as quickest among the new teams.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Alonso Ferrari 1:14.904 36 2. Rosberg Mercedes 1:15.013 + 0.109 39 3. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:15.099 + 0.195 47 4. Massa Ferrari 1:15.120 + 0.216 44 5. Schumacher Mercedes 1:15.143 + 0.239 38 6. Kubica Renault 1:15.192 + 0.288 38 7. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:15.249 + 0.345 32 8. Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:15.460 + 0.556 42 9. Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:15.619 + 0.715 37 10. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:15.620 + 0.716 28 11. Petrov Renault 1:15.746 + 0.842 44 12. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:16.276 + 1.372 46 13. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 1:16.348 + 1.444 48 14. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:16.522 + 1.618 37 15. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1:16.528 + 1.624 42 16. de la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari 1:16.599 + 1.695 36 17. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1:16.818 + 1.914 45 18. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:17.023 + 2.119 28 19. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 1:18.184 + 3.280 47 20. di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 1:18.478 + 3.574 38 21. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 1:18.667 + 3.763 13 22. Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1:18.721 + 3.817 41 23. Chandhok HRT-Cosworth 1:20.313 + 5.409 35 24. Senna HRT-Cosworth 1:22.148 + 7.244 11 All Timing Unofficial
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