Alonso tops second practice in France

Morning pace-setter Felipe Massa had to settle for second in his Ferrari this time, ahead of teammate Kimi Raikkonen and McLaren's Lewis Hamilton.

Sebastian Vettel was an impressive fifth for Toro Rosso, while points leader Robert Kubica (BMW) completed the top six and Hamilton's teammate Heikki Kovalainen took seventh.

After the lacklustre morning session, second practice proved much more frenetic - both in terms of close competition, and the number of incidents, as the increasingly hot conditions saw many drivers sliding through the gravel or across the asphalt run-off areas.

Both McLarens and both Ferraris took turns to lead the way during the first half of the session, with Hamilton the first of the major contenders to set a quick time after ten minutes. He stayed ahead of a quarter of an hour before being usurped by Massa, who was only on top briefly before first Kovalainen, then Raikkonen moved to the front.

But Massa responded with a 1:15.854 lap at the mid-point of the session, beating Raikkonen by 0.148 seconds. That was sufficient to keep him at the head of the order until Alonso grabbed the soft tyres and edged ahead by 0.076 seconds with seven minutes remaining.

Earlier in the session, Alonso had run off course at the 180 corner and saved a wild sideways slide on the exit of the final chicane, but the former champion was far from the only driver to make an error.

Hamilton, Jarno Trulli (Toyota) and Massa all had spectacular high-speed trips across the gravel at Estoril, with the McLaren driver's mid-session incident forcing him to change his front wing, and Massa's late mistake spoiling his soft tyre run.

The Brazilian had a similarly dramatic excursion on the exit of Imola, emerging from the gravel halfway around the Chateau d'Eau. The same area also caught out Renault's Nelson Piquet and Force India's Adrian Sutil, although all the drivers managed to avoid the barriers.

The field was extremely close throughout the session, and by the end of the 90 minutes less than one second covered the top 13 cars.

Vettel was rapid all afternoon, regularly running in the top five and using the softer Bridgestones to beat Kubica and Kovalainen to fifth.

Kubica's BMW teammate Nick Heidfeld was eighth, ahead of Piquet and Red Bull driver David Coulthard.

At the end of the session, the drivers tested the new safety car electronics system after they had taken the flag, although the device - which is designed to limit cars' speed when driving through dangerous situations - remains in the early stages of its development.

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time              Laps
 1.  Alonso        Renault             (B)  1:15.778            37
 2.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:15.854  + 0.076   24
 3.  Raikkonen     Ferrari             (B)  1:15.999  + 0.221   42
 4.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:16.232  + 0.454   29
 5.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:16.298  + 0.520   42
 6.  Kubica        BMW Sauber          (B)  1:16.317  + 0.539   35
 7.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:16.340  + 0.562   36
 8.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber          (B)  1:16.458  + 0.680   43
 9.  Piquet        Renault             (B)  1:16.543  + 0.765   39
10.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:16.572  + 0.794   36
11.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:16.682  + 0.904   42
12.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)  1:16.743  + 0.965   43
13.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:16.758  + 0.980   42
14.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:17.002  + 1.224   32
15.  Glock         Toyota              (B)  1:17.092  + 1.314   39
16.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:17.106  + 1.328   38
17.  Button        Honda               (B)  1:17.244  + 1.466   37
18.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:17.394  + 1.616   42
19.  Barrichello   Honda               (B)  1:17.591  + 1.813   27
20.  Sutil         Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:17.868  + 2.090   33