Practice Two - Alonso edges Hamilton in Canada

A clearer picture of the pecking order emerged during the second free practice session in Canada on Friday afternoon as Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso narrowly headed McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, with just 0.012s separating them.
The 90-minute session was run throughout on a dry track after this morning’s wet-dry conditions, with Kimi Raikkonen initially leading the way for Lotus, followed by Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg, morning pacesetter Paul di Resta for Force India, Raikkonen again, Red Bull’s Mark Webber, Di Resta again, Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, Hamilton, Hamilton again, Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel, Vettel again, Hamilton twice more, and then Alonso before everyone began focusing on long runs. Several teams made runs on Pirelli’s prototype tyres, which should be race ready from Silverstone.
Alonso’s best lap was 1m 14.818s, with Hamilton the closest on 1m 14.830s. Behind them, Romain Grosjean bounced into third place for Lotus on 1m 15.083s ahead of Webber on 1m 15.212s, Rosberg on 1m 15.249s, Massa on 1m 15.254s, Vettel on 1m 15.280s and Adrian Sutil on 1m 15.396s for Force India.
Jenson Button was ninth on 1m 15.422s for McLaren, ahead of Daniel Ricciardo on 1m 15.566s for Toro Rosso, Raikkonen on 1m 15.599s, Sergio Perez on 1m 15.661s in the other McLaren, and Di Resta, whose Force India was kept in the garage for some time with technical problems, on 1m 15.855s. Eight-tenths thus covered the third- to 13th-fastest drivers.
Pastor Maldonado was 15th for Williams on 1m 16.319s from Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne on 1m 16.351s and team mate Valtteri Bottas on 1m 16.374s. Esteban Gutierrez outshone Sauber team mate Nico Hulkenberg with 1m 16.475s to 1m 16.929s, as Jules Bianchi made up for his morning troubles with 1m 17.070s for Marussia.
Charles Pic was back in his Caterham to take 20th place with 1m 17.236s, with Marussia’s Max Chilton 21st on 1m 17.888s and Giedo van der Garde bringing up the rear for Caterham on 1m 18.392s.