Sebastian Vettel outpaces Fernando Alonso in Spanish GP practice

Barcelona: Defending triple world champion Sebastian Vettel outpaced home hero Fernando Alonso to clock the fastest time in Friday’s second free practice session ahead of this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix.

The 25-year-old Red Bull driver narrowly edged out the Ferrari man with a best time of one minute 22.808 seconds after Alonso had delighted his compatriots during a wet morning session by clocking the early fastest time.

Just 0.083 seconds covered the top three men as Alonso split the two Red Bulls of Vettel and his teammate Mark Webber, who was third fastest.

After an all-Mercedes battle involving both Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton in the early stages of the afternoon session, it was Alonso and the Red Bulls that dominated the lead order through the low-fuel runs in the final part.

Finn Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus was fourth fastest ahead of Brazilian Felipe Massa in the second Ferrari, Hamilton and Rosberg, with the struggling McLarens of Jenson Button and Sergio Perez down in 12th and 13th respectively.

Hamilton spun his Mercedes at Turn 11 during the early runs, swiftly rejoining without problems and ultimately taking sixth on a day when tyre wear was again a major issue with Paul di Resta suffering a major scare when the left rear tyre on his Force India car delaminated on the main straight.

The Scot parked his car on the grass. He ended up 10th, two places behind teammate Adrian Sutil.

Home hero and two-time champion Fernando Alonso of Ferrari had clocked the fastest time in Friday morning’s opening free practice session for this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix.

On a damp morning with much wet weather at the Circuit de Catalunya, Alonso clocked a best lap in one minute and 25.252 seconds to outpace teammate and nearest rival Brazilian Felipe Massa by 0.203 seconds.

The conditions made it difficult for any of the teams or drivers to acquaint themselves properly with the rafts of upgrades fitted to their cars since the four season-opening flyaway races.

It was only coming into the final quarter of an hour that slick tyres were viable, but it remained treacherous and there were enough wet and slippery patches to make it difficult for everyone.

With so many developments to try, the teams were less reticent about coming out earlier than is usual and the crowd had a decent amount of track activity to enjoy throughout the morning.