Alonso tops Friday at Canada

F1 Grand Prix, GP Canada, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve

Fernando Alonso set the fastest time in the second free practice session, leading Hamilton and Grosjean. Di Resta, the fastest man of the morning was mostly stuck in the pits due to technical issues on his Force India car.

In the hours after FP1 and ahead of FP2 there was no more rain at Montreal, making it a totally dry track by the start of the second free practice. This also made drivers eager to go out, with everybody except Van der Garde taking to the track on the experimental Pirelli tyre. Ferrari was soon after doing constant speed runs yet again to verify the influence of the new tyres and the updates on the car.

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25 minutes into the session, most drivers have already completed more than 10 laps. Massa is the fastest early on, ahead of Di Resta, Perez, Webber, Vettel, Alonso and Sutil.

At the halfway point however, Red Bull leapt ahead and put both its cars on top of the timesheet as teams switch their cars on the supersoft tyres. Vettel first posted 1:15.280 and Webber soon followed with a time that is 0.040s slower. Hamilton slots into third, Alonso 4th, Raikkonen 5th.

The times continue to improve though, mostly thanks to Ferrari and Mercedes switching to the supersofts later than Red Bull did. The result is that Alonso emerges on top after one hour into FP2, a fraction ahead of Hamilton and nearly 3 tenths faster than Grosjean.

From then on, most drivers seem to settle for longer runs, hindered just a little bit by a few rain drops 15 minutes from the end of the session.

This meant the times didn't get improved, leaving Alonso unthreatened at the top of the timesheet. Button, Di Resta and Raikkonen meanwhile were already stuck in the pits for a longer while as they suffered technical issues.