Alonso surprised everyone this afternoon in Magny-Cours by topping the time sheets in the second free-practise session of the day. 

Massa had to settle for second place this time round with his team mate Raikkonen following behind. Hamilton claimed fourth in his McLaren. Sebastian Vettel continued his fantastic form by finishing fifth. 

As temperatures increased on the track the lap times also rose too, with the second session being far more eventful than that of the mornings. Lots of drivers fell foul of the slippery asphalt as the sun shone over the French track. 

Hamilton led the time sheets initially with a time of 1m16.500s. Massa took this from him less than 15 minutes later. Kovalainen was next to beat everyone when he came out on the softer tyre, with a time of 1m16.340s. Massa came back at that with a 1m15.854s which was to remain the top time until Alonso came out on the softer tyre with less than eight minutes of the session to go. 

Alonso’s first lap out on the softer tyre had looked to be good enough to move him to the top of the time sheets but he attacked the high kerbs of the final chicane with too much force and he ran off course. 

Pretty much everyone had trips in to the gravel traps at some stage or other but Massa took the biggest trips off and was lucky to come away with his Ferrari unscathed. He lost control in the middle of the sixth gear Imola chigane, causing him to skid across the gravel and rejoin the circuit on the exit of Chateau d’Eau. Later, on the soft tyre he under-steered wide coming out of the long Estoril corner, bounced across the gravel and narrowly missed the tyre barrier. 

Hamilton came off at the same spot, resulting in him coming in for a new front wing. Trulli also had an off there too. 

Kubica completed the session in sixth after reporting a misfire when he pitted early in the session. Despite complaining of both handling and traction issues he still outpaced his team mate Heidfeld who finished in eighth. The McLaren of Kovalainen split the two BMW’s. 

Nelson Piquet had a good afternoon to finish in ninth and David Coulthard completed the top ten for Red Bull Racing.

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