Alonso tops interrupted second practice

The Spanish driver moved to the top of the times halfway through the session and stayed there until the end with a best of 1m15.107s, outpacing Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel by nearly four tenths of a second.

Ferrari enjoyed a very positive start to the weekend, with Felipe Massa finishing in this position ahead of the McLarens of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button.

Vettel showed missing the majority of first session was not a big problem for him, the German setting the fastest time of the weekend at the start of the session. His lap of 1m15.476s was over a tenth of a second quicker than the best set by Rosberg in the opening session.

Alonso outpaced the world champion with 48 minutes to go, the Spaniard setting the benchmark with a la of 1m15.205s using the soft tyres.

A new best time was set by the Spaniard with eight minutes to go, when he went for his first run of super softs.

Second practice was also red-flagged with some 30 minutes remaining when Kamui Kobayashi crashed into the wall at the first chicane when he ran too high over the kerbs. His Sauber impacted straight into the wall and the Japanese could not return to the track.

Just minutes after the restart, Virgin's Jerome D'Ambrosio lost control of his car at the same spot and also crashed heavily against the wall, causing another red flag. The Belgian rookie emerged from the car without assistance, but his car was heavily damaged.

Hamilton suffered a puncture right after that, probably caused by debris from D'Ambrosio's crash.

Adrian Sutil was the protagonist of another incident during the session when he crashed against the wall coming out of Turn 7. His Force India's left front suspension was damaged and the German had to miss the last 35 minutes of action.

The session saw several other small incidents as drivers outbraked themselves throughout the 90 minutes, with 'offs' especially at the last chicane and at Turns 8-9.

Pedro de la Rosa, who is replacing Sergio Perez this weekend after the Mexican felt unwell following FP1, managed to hit the track following the stoppage caused by his team-mate Kobayashi, with some 20 minutes left, but his first run was interrupted by the second red flag.

The Spaniard, still wearing McLaren overalls, eventually completed 14 laps and finished 18th quickest.

Pos  Driver                Team                    Time              Laps
 1.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                 1m15.107s           34
 2.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault        1m15.476s + 0.369   29
 3.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari                 1m15.601s + 0.494   33
 4.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes        1m15.977s + 0.870   26
 5.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes        1m15.989s + 0.882   25
 6.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes    1m16.089s + 0.982   34
 7.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault        1m16.102s + 0.995   28
 8.  Vitaly Petrov         Renault                 1m16.324s + 1.217   32
 9.  Nick Heidfeld         Renault                 1m16.422s + 1.315   32
10.  Rubens Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth       1m16.687s + 1.580   28
11.  Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes    1m16.905s + 1.798   16
12.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Cosworth       1m16.941s + 1.834   39
13.  Sebastien Buemi       Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1m17.051s + 1.944   32
14.  Jaime Alguersuari     Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1m17.684s + 2.577   34
15.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari          1m17.757s + 2.650   20
16.  Jarno Trulli          Lotus-Renault           1m18.470s + 3.363   33
17.  Heikki Kovalainen     Lotus-Renault           1m18.482s + 3.375   38
18.  Pedro de la Rosa      Sauber-Ferrari          1m18.536s + 3.429   14
19.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes                1m18.601s + 3.494   38
20.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes                1m19.209s + 4.102   28
21.  Timo Glock            Virgin-Cosworth         1m19.810s + 4.703   25
22.  Tonio Liuzzi          HRT-Cosworth            1m20.284s + 5.177   31
23.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth            1m20.311s + 5.204   38
24.  Jerome D'Ambrosio     Virgin-Cosworth         1m20.922s + 5.815   26

All Timing Unofficial