Alonso puts Ferrari on top in FP2

The Spaniard led the way for the majority of the afternoon, staying ahead of McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes' Nico Rosberg and the second McLaren of Jenson Button, while championship leader Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull was back in fifth.

Alonso's session began with a near-miss when he almost ran into the back of team-mate Felipe Massa in the Swimming Pool section as the Brazilian cruised around on a slower lap. Intra-team disaster averted, Alonso took the top spot next time around.

That 1m16.408s lap stood as the best until drivers started switching to super soft tyres mid-way through the session. Vettel briefly hit the front then, but only for a few minutes before Alonso blitzed the champion's time by half a second with a 1m15.123s that would go unbeaten.

His rivals edged closer, with Vettel pushed back to fifth behind Hamilton, Rosberg and Button, but Alonso's time kept him in front.

Massa also showed good pace to take sixth, while Michael Schumacher came back from his morning crash to go seventh for Mercedes.

After missing the morning with a gearbox issue, Mark Webber had KERS troubles on the way to eighth this afternoon. Adrian Sutil (Force India) and Nick Heidfeld (Renault) completed the top 10.

There were fewer incidents than in first practice, although Vitaly Petrov slid into the barriers on the approach to the chicane and did minor damage to his Renault, and Jaime Alguersuari did likewise to his Toro Rosso at Sainte Devote, where Williams's Pastor Maldonado and Lotus's Heikki Kovalainen (twice) visited the run-off without drama.

Paul di Resta's session was ended by a mechanical problem - the Force India losing drive after 35 minutes. Tonio Liuzzi did not take part in the session, hydraulic issues being discovered while the Hispania crew repaired the damage from his morning incident.

Pos  Driver                Team                    Time              Laps
 1.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                1m15.123s           42
 2.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes       1m15.228s  + 0.105  33
 3.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes               1m15.321s  + 0.198  44
 4.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1m15.448s  + 0.325  38
 5.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault       1m15.667s  + 0.544  46
 6.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari                1m15.781s  + 0.658  45
 7.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes               1m16.356s  + 1.233  33
 8.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault       1m16.642s  + 1.519  42
 9.  Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes   1m17.101s  + 1.978  46
10.  Nick Heidfeld         Renault                1m17.126s  + 2.003  38
11.  Vitaly Petrov         Renault                1m17.337s  + 2.214  35
12.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari         1m17.541s  + 2.418  47
13.  Rubens Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth      1m17.570s  + 2.447  39
14.  Sebastien Buemi       Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m17.581s  + 2.458  32
15.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Cosworth      1m17.633s  + 2.510  49
16.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari         1m17.706s  + 2.583  37
17.  Jaime Alguersuari     Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m17.789s  + 2.666  43
18.  Heikki Kovalainen     Lotus-Renault          1m18.266s  + 3.143  50
19.  Jarno Trulli          Lotus-Renault          1m18.490s  + 3.367  39
20.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes   1m19.053s  + 3.930  15
21.  Jerome D'Ambrosio     Virgin-Cosworth        1m19.185s  + 4.062  40
22.  Timo Glock            Virgin-Cosworth        1m19.338s  + 4.215  35
23.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth           1m22.066s  + 6.943  33

All Timing Unofficial