Monaco, FP2: Alonso puts Ferrari on top

Fernando Alonso set the fastest time of a rain-hit second practice session, the Ferrari driver making the most of a small window of dry-tyre running in the final ten minutes of the session.

Alonso delivered a best lap of 1:18.482 to beat Hamilton by 0.4. Sebastian Vettel was third for Red Bull Racing ahead of Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne who impressed in the changeable conditions.

Prior to the start of the session heavy rain fell across the Principality and with heavy cloud cover over Monaco during the 90 minutes of practice a dry line didn’t form until late in the session and as such teams limited running.

For the first half of the session Valtteri Bottas’ tentative lap remained the only one on the board. But when conditions began to improve late on, drivers began to contemplate taking to the circuit.

And when a dry line appeared Vergne was the first to attempt a lap on dry tyres. Kimi Raikkonen too attempted a lap but the Finn’s progress was slow and he soon limped back to the pits with a problem that prevented any more running. He finished the session at the foot of the timesheet.

In the final minutes, with Vergne settling into fourth, fifth place went to Bottas with the Force Indias of Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg finished in sixth and seventh respectively. Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen were eighth and tenth respectively, the McLaren pair split by Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo.