McLaren pair on top in practice 2

Having missed much of the morning courtesy of a misfire, the McLaren driver took to the track early in the second session and soon established himself at the end of the times.

A mid-session run on soft tyres saw Alonso produce the 1:22.386 that would stand as the day's fastest lap, and even when the rest of the field switched to softs for the final runs, the world champion's 0.823 second advantage remained intact.

After their commanding morning performance, Ferrari had a less successful afternoon.

Felipe Massa could only manage sixth, 1.3 seconds off the pace and a second shy of his first session times. The Brazilian also had a spin at the Roggia chicane, with Alonso having to take to the revised run-off to avoid him.

Kimi Raikkonen was only eighth quickest, having been forced to sit out most of the session when he struck hydraulic problems after just five laps. He rejoined to complete a further seven laps right at the end of the 90 minutes.

Ferrari's problems allowed Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella to take third, despite some worrying clouds of black smoke from his brakes during the afternoon - a trait not seen to the same extent on any other car.

Robert Kubica was fourth fastest for BMW, ahead of Nico Rosberg's Williams, with Nick Heidfeld splitting the Ferraris in seventh in the second BMW.

Heikki Kovalainen and Alex Wurz completed the top ten.

Aside from a plethora of minor trips across the chicanes, the only notable incident of the session was the red flag to retrieve Anthony Davidson's Super Aguri.

The Briton had come to a halt on the grass between the Lesmos, and with the marshals unable to retrieve the car safely, the session had to be halted for nine minutes.

Pos  Driver        Team                    Time               Laps
 1.  Alonso        McLaren-Mercedes   (B)  1:22.386            30
 2.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes   (B)  1:23.209  + 0.823   33
 3.  Fisichella    Renault            (B)  1:23.584  + 1.198   38
 4.  Kubica        BMW Sauber         (B)  1:23.599  + 1.213   44
 5.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota    (B)  1:23.679  + 1.293   33
 6.  Massa         Ferrari            (B)  1:23.722  + 1.336   27
 7.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber         (B)  1:23.821  + 1.435   38
 8.  Raikkonen     Ferrari            (B)  1:23.833  + 1.447   12
 9.  Kovalainen    Renault            (B)  1:23.848  + 1.462   32
10.  Wurz          Williams-Toyota    (B)  1:23.881  + 1.495   32
11.  Trulli        Toyota             (B)  1:23.919  + 1.533   39
12.  R.Schumacher  Toyota             (B)  1:23.922  + 1.536   29
13.  Button        Honda              (B)  1:24.137  + 1.751   36
14.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault   (B)  1:24.328  + 1.942   31
15.  Barrichello   Honda              (B)  1:24.462  + 2.076   40
16.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault   (B)  1:24.605  + 2.219   31
17.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda  (B)  1:25.328  + 2.942   27
18.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B)  1:25.459  + 3.073   36
19.  Sutil         Spyker-Ferrari     (B)  1:25.531  + 3.145   24
20.  Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B)  1:25.567  + 3.181   26
21.  Yamamoto      Spyker-Ferrari     (B)  1:25.863  + 3.477   40
22.  Davidson      Super Aguri-Honda  (B)  1:26.021  + 3.635    6