Alonso on top in practice 2 - Imola

Spaniard Alonso, who won last year's race on the way to the drivers' world crown, lapped the Imola circuit in 1:25.043 in his Renault to beat Ferrari's Michael Schumacher by over three tenths of a second.

Most of the drivers had to contend with dirty tyres on their first flying laps. This was because the pitlane was covered in a layer of concrete dust after a competitor from a support race had left a trail of oil on-track earlier on.

That caused off track-excursions for Alonso, McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen and BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld among others.

But Alonso survived his scare at the Variante Alta chicane to set the pace with a flying lap just three minutes from the end of the session.

BMW Sauber's Polish test driver Robert Kubica was the first man to take to the track in the afternoon session, but blotted his copybook after 13 minutes when he spun at the Tosa hairpin but kept going on his way to third fastest.

The top six was completed by Honda tester Anthony Davidson, Ferrari's Felipe Massa, and Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella.

Raikkonen was the first of the major names to set a benchmark time. After completing only five laps in total during the morning session, he lapped in the high 1 minute, 26 second-bracket after only a quarter of the session, but despite improving his own time, he slipped down the order to an eventual 12th.

Michael Schumacher, who was quickest of all during the day after setting the pace in the faster morning session, soon demoted Raikkonen though with a lap over a second faster, before Alonso stole the top spot.

After failing to take to the track at all during the morning session, Britain's Jenson Button just missed the 10 positions for Honda in 11th, while his Brazilian teammate Rubens Barrichello was disappointed to end up two places further back.

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time              Laps
 1.  Alonso        Renault             (M)  1:25.043           15
 2.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari             (B)  1:25.371 + 0.328   13
 3.  Kubica        BMW-Sauber          (M)  1:25.421 + 0.378   31
 4.  Davidson      Honda               (M)  1:25.699 + 0.656   31
 5.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:25.879 + 0.836   16
 6.  Fisichella    Renault             (M)  1:25.991 + 0.948   15
 7.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)  1:26.029 + 0.986   24
 8.  Wurz          Williams-Cosworth   (B)  1:26.328 + 1.285   31
 9.  Montoya       McLaren-Mercedes    (M)  1:26.334 + 1.291   15
10.  Heidfeld      BMW-Sauber          (M)  1:26.387 + 1.344    7
11.  Button        Honda               (M)  1:26.427 + 1.384   12
12.  Raikkonen     McLaren-Mercedes    (M)  1:26.500 + 1.457   16
13.  Barrichello   Honda               (M)  1:26.653 + 1.610   19
14.  Albers        MF1-Toyota          (B)  1:26.783 + 1.740   24
15.  Villeneuve    BMW-Sauber          (M)  1:26.797 + 1.754   13
16.  Doornbos      Red Bull-Ferrari    (M)  1:26.917 + 1.874   27
17.  Rosberg       Williams-Cosworth   (B)  1:26.989 + 1.946   10
18.  Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Cosworth (M)  1:27.128 + 2.085   24
19.  Webber        Williams-Cosworth   (B)  1:27.157 + 2.114    6
20.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Ferrari    (M)  1:27.503 + 2.460   12
21.  Monteiro      MF1-Toyota          (B)  1:27.544 + 2.501   20
22.  R.Schumacher  Toyota              (B)  1:27.639 + 2.596    5
23.  Speed         Toro Rosso-Cosworth (M)  1:27.719 + 2.676   25
24.  Klien         Red Bull-Ferrari    (M)  1:27.990 + 2.947   12
25.  Jani          Toro Rosso-Cosworth (M)  1:28.361 + 3.318   21
26.  Mondini       MF1-Toyota          (B)  1:28.833 + 3.790   27
27.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda   (B)  1:29.870 + 4.827   23
28.  Ide           Super Aguri-Honda   (B)  1:31.042 + 5.999   20

All Timing Unofficial