Canadian GP: Alonso quickest in FP2

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso narrowly beat Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes to the fastest time in Friday practice for the Canadian Grand Prix.

A totally dry afternoon session allowed teams to get on with the work stymied by morning rain, including testing the development Pirelli tyres, modified to try to eliminate recent delamination issues.

Alonso's team-mate Felipe Massa was fastest of all for a while using the revised tyres early on.

Hamilton then took over on soft tyres a few minutes later.

The Red Bulls were the first to try super-softs just before the session's mid-point.

That prompted a three-way battle for the top spot between Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber and Hamilton, before Alonso jumped ahead of them all.

Alonso had looked on course to top the times on several other occasions earlier before making minor mistakes.

The Spaniard's 1m14.818s was 0.012 seconds ahead of Hamilton's effort.

Romain Grosjean grabbed third for Lotus, as Red Bull pair Webber and Vettel slipped to fourth and seventh.

They were split by Nico Rosberg's Mercedes and Massa.

Adrian Sutil put his Force India eighth.

Jenson Button had to stop slightly early in his McLaren due to gearbox sensor issues. He was still ninth quickest, sandwiched by Adrian Sutil's Force India and Daniel Ricciardo's Toro Rosso.

Paul di Resta also ran into mechanical trouble, a fuel feed problem on his Force India leaving him sat idle in the garage.

Pos  Driver               Team                  Time       Gap       Laps
 1.  Fernando Alonso      Ferrari               1m14.818s            48
 2.  Lewis Hamilton       Mercedes              1m14.830s  + 0.012s  45
 3.  Romain Grosjean      Lotus-Renault         1m15.083s  + 0.265s  40
 4.  Mark Webber          Red Bull-Renault      1m15.212s  + 0.394s  46
 5.  Nico Rosberg         Mercedes              1m15.249s  + 0.431s  46
 6.  Felipe Massa         Ferrari               1m15.254s  + 0.436s  43
 7.  Sebastian Vettel     Red Bull-Renault      1m15.280s  + 0.462s  41
 8.  Adrian Sutil         Force India-Mercedes  1m15.396s  + 0.578s  43
 9.  Jenson Button        McLaren-Mercedes      1m15.422s  + 0.604s  29
10.  Daniel Ricciardo     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m15.566s  + 0.748s  38
11.  Kimi Raikkonen       Lotus-Renault         1m15.599s  + 0.781s  35
12.  Sergio Perez         McLaren-Mercedes      1m15.661s  + 0.843s  39
13.  Paul di Resta        Force India-Mercedes  1m15.855s  + 1.037s  22
14.  Pastor Maldonado     Williams-Renault      1m16.319s  + 1.501s  46
15.  Jean-Eric Vergne     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m16.351s  + 1.533s  38
16.  Valtteri Bottas      Williams-Renault      1m16.374s  + 1.556s  40
17.  Esteban Gutierrez    Sauber-Ferrari        1m16.475s  + 1.657s  45
18.  Nico Hulkenberg      Sauber-Ferrari        1m16.929s  + 2.111s  35
19.  Jules Bianchi        Marussia-Cosworth     1m17.070s  + 2.252s  41
20.  Charles Pic          Caterham-Renault      1m17.236s  + 2.418s  35
21.  Max Chilton          Marussia-Cosworth     1m17.888s  + 3.070s  45
22.  Giedo van der Garde  Caterham-Renault      1m18.392s  + 3.574s  39