» Canadian GP: Alonso fastest in second practice

Fernando Alonso has moved ahead in the second practice session of this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix, marking Ferrari as a potential dark horse this weekend with team-mate Felipe Massa third-fastest.

Sebastian Vettel managed to split the Ferraris on the timesheets, having recovered from his hefty smash in the first practice session earlier today, but other drivers – most notably Kamui Kobayashi and Jérôme d’Ambrosio – caused interruptions to the ninety-minute session with accidents at Turn 4.

The big news story of the session was Sergio Pérez unexpectedly deciding to pull out of further action this weekend, with his seat at Sauber being taken over by Pedro de la Rosa, who was given just ten minutes notice to make his return to the team with whom he drove last year.

After a mad scramble, the McLaren test driver rocked up at the Swiss team’s garages wearing his McLaren overalls, while Pérez elected not to participate any further despite finishing the first practice session eleventh-fastest. De la Rosa managed to complete 22 minutes of track time, finally joining the circuit after the session’s second red flag.

The first stoppage was brought about by Adrian Sutil, who knocked the front-left suspension off his Force India when he hit the wall at Turn 7.

Having looked very ragged for much of the session, it was little surprise to see Kamui Kobayashi then managing to damage the two right-hand corners of his Sauber when he hit the wall at Turn 4. Shortly after running resumed, d’Ambrosio managed a near carbon-copy smash in his Virgin Racing entry.

At the pointy end of the timesheets, Fernando Alonso posted the quickest sector times in the first and last sectors of the lap to post a 1:15.107, three-tenths quicker than second-placed Vettel.

Paul di Resta raised eyebrows by going sixth-fastest in his Force India, one spot ahead of Mark Webber in the second Red Bull.

After finishing the first practice session in the top-three, Mercedes GP wallowed near the bottom of the timesheets as they fine-tuned their set-up with very heavy fuel loads. Nico Rosberg was 19th-fastest, one spot ahead of team-mate Michael Schumacher.

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2011 Canadian Grand Prix – Free Practice 2 Session Times:

	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
1.	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari F150° Italia	1:15.107	34
2.	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Renault RB7	+ 0.369	29
3.	Felipe Massa	Ferrari F150° Italia	+ 0.494	33
4.	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren Mercedes MP4-26	+ 0.870	26
5.	Jenson Button	McLaren Mercedes MP4-26	+ 0.882	25
6.	Paul di Resta	Force India Mercedes VJM04	+ 0.982	34
7.	Mark Webber	Red Bull Renault RB7	+ 0.995	28
8.	Vitaly Petrov	Renault R31	+ 1.217	32
9.	Nick Heidfeld	Renault R31	+ 1.315	32
10.	Rubens Barrichello	Williams Cosworth FW33	+ 1.580	28
11.	Adrian Sutil	Force India Mercedes VJM04	+ 1.798	16
12.	Pastor Maldonado	Williams Cosworth FW33	+ 1.834	39
13.	Sébastien Buemi	Toro Rosso Ferrari STR6	+ 1.944	32
14.	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso Ferrari STR6	+ 2.577	34
15.	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber Ferrari C30	+ 2.650	20
16.	Jarno Trulli	Lotus Renault T128	+ 3.363	33
17.	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus Renault T128	+ 3.375	38
18.	Pedro de la Rosa	Sauber Ferrari C30	+ 3.429	14
19.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes GP W02	+ 3.494	38
20.	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes GP W02	+ 4.102	28
21.	Timo Glock	Virgin Racing Cosworth MVR-02	+ 4.703	25
22.	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT F1 Cosworth F111	+ 5.177	31
23.	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT F1 Cosworth F111	+ 5.204	38
24.	Jérôme d’Ambrosio	Virgin Racing Cosworth MVR-02	+ 5.815	26