Alonso fastest in 2nd practice

Fernando Alonso set the fastest time in this afternoon’s practice session and was the sole driver to dip under the 1’38 bracket.

The Spaniard was two tenths of a second faster than Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel. Michael Schumacher was fourth fastest ahead of Massa, Button and Webber.

Rosberg, Heidfeld and Petrov completed the top ten.

Jaime Alguersuari was sidelined by engine problems while Paul di Resta lost most part of the session as he waited for his team’s mechanics to repair his car.

How the session panned out :

Work immediately resumed at Valencia. With just over ten minutes gone, nineteen drivers were lapping around the track and going through their afternoon’s work program.

Alonso and Massa were already leading the way but were soon edged out by Sebastian Vettel. The German had kept a low profile this morning, concentrating on his race preparation rather than pushing for a fast time.

His teammate Mark Webber joined him at the front not long after and it was a Red Bull one-two at Valencia. Vettel further improved and was the first to break the 1’40 barrier this weekend. Alonso was the second driver to dip under the 1’40 bracket and slotted in 2nd, one tenth behind Vettel.

Webber reacted and reclaimed P2, 0.002s behind his teammate.

Thirty minutes into the session, the Red Bulls were leading the way, with Alonso’s Ferrari hot on their heels. Maldonado was up in fourth place. Heidfeld completed the top five.

Two drivers were yet to post a time: Paul di Resta – whose car was still under repair after Hulkenberg’s morning crash – and Jaime Alguersuari, apparently because of engine problems.

After a short spell in the pits, Vettel and Alonso came back on track. The Spaniard looked set to improve his time but made a mistake at the hairpin. Vettel, meanwhile, found some hundredths of a second.

Halfway through the session, Alonso was still third behind the Red Bulls of Vettel and Webber.

The softer tyre option helped Nick Heidfeld to move on top of the timesheet, 0.6s ahead of Vettel. Nico Rosberg was next to try the soft tyre and jumped from P18 to P1.

It was then Webber’s turn and he took over at the front, going four tenths of a second quicker than Rosberg. Vettel went a bit quicker to reassert himself at the front. He was en route to further improve on his third flying lap but aborted it and pitted.

As he was back in his garage, Lewis Hamilton and then Fernando Alonso edged him out and relegated him down to third place.

The final part of the session was dedicated to longer runs on the softer tyre.

Di Resta was finally able to join the track and completed seven laps in this session.