Fisichella: McLaren will be Hard to Beat

Kimi Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya were the fastest racing drivers, with test driver Pedro de la Rosa right behind them.

Fisichella and Renault teammate Fernando Alonso failed to set a time in the morning, a regular feature of the season in opening practice with engines having to last two races, but were only ninth and 10th in the second.

"There was much less grip out there today than we had at the test, which can be seen from the laptimes - we are more than a second slower than last week," said Fisichella. "That meant the car was a bit tricky to drive, but we can fix that tomorrow morning.

"Overall, I think McLaren probably have the advantage over us - but we are where we expected to be."

Alonso, leading the Championship by 24 points over Raikkonen, remained calm and was hopeful of a strong weekend.

"It was not too bad a day for me," said Alonso. "The track conditions were not as good as last week in the test, because it was much hotter and that made the car harder to drive.

"We did a lot of running on the tyres last week, so today's runs were just to confirm what we found in the test, and Michelin have brought two very good tyres. It looked like everybody was struggling a little bit for grip, because we saw a lot of spins, but we can adjust the car overnight to compensate.

"Overall, I think we are in quite a strong position."