F1, European GP Free Practice 2: Alonso and Ferrari ahead of everyone

Fernando Alonso and Ferrari achieved the best time in the second free practice session of the Formula 1 European GP. In Valencia the Spaniard thrilled his fans by taking advantage of the softer Pirelli compound and lapping in 1.37.968 ahead of the McLaren Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton by more than two tenths.

World champion and championship leader Sebastian Vettel is third ahead of Michael Schumacher's Mercedes and Felipe Massa's other Ferrari.

Jenson Button suffered problems with the rear of his McLaren and finished sixth while Mark Webber, the fastest in the morning, set the seventh fastest time.

Massa came close to the first session time set by Webber right at the start of the afternoon session by setting the provisional best time in 1.40.857 then beaten by Alonso in 1.40.492.

Vettel then started to show his real pace and after 13 minutes he took the lead with a 1.40.062 which was further improved on the next pass. Webber moved into second place, then overtaken by Alonso but the Australian subsequently moved back behind Vettel. Alonso seemed capable of taking the lead with 50 minutes to go but found Karthikeyan in the final corner and aborted his lap. Nick Heidfeld was the first to put on soft tires with 40 minutes to go, shaving 1,5 seconds off his previous time and taking the lead by almost 7 tenths of a second.

Shortly afterwards Webber fitted a set of soft tires to take the lead ahead of Nico Rosberg. Then it was Vettel's turn to mount soft tires and the world champion took the lead with a margin of 266 thousandths over Webber.

Hamilton in turn set the best time but Alonso did even better on the softs with two fastest laps in succession.

Jaime Alguersuari was forced to withdraw from the session after suffering an engine problem with his Toro Rosso.

Paul di Resta used the car damaged by Hulkenberg in the first session and only ran in the final 10 minutes.

F1 GP Europe – Valencia – Free Practice 2

Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m37.968s 35 2. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m38.195s + 0.227 26 3. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m38.265s + 0.297 31 4. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m38.315s + 0.347 30 5. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m38.443s + 0.475 32 6. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m38.483s + 0.515 30 7. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m38.531s + 0.563 26 8. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m38.981s + 1.013. 33 9 1. Nick Heidfeld Renault 39.040m1.072s + 35 10 1. Vitaly Petrov Renault 39.586m1.618s + 27 11 1. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 39.626m1.658s + 31 12 1. Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 40.020m2.052s + 34 13 1. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 40.301m2.333s + 34 14 1. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 40.363m2.395s + 7 15 1. Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 40.454m2.486s + 32 16 1. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 40.531m2.563 .37s + 17 1 42.083. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 4.115m34s + 18 1 42.156. Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 4.188m39s + 19 1 42.239. Jarno Trulli Lotus-Renault 4.271m25s + 20 1 42.273. Timo Glock Virgin- Cosworth 4.305m21s + 21 1 42.809. Jerome D'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 4.841m36s + 22 1 44.460. Tonio Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth 6.492m29s + 23 1 46.906. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 8.938m16s + XNUMX XNUMX XNUMX