Alonso finishes Friday on top

Fernando Alonso recovered after a collision with Nick Heidfeld to set the fastest time in Friday's second free practice session in Valencia. The Renault driver topped the timesheets ahead of this weekend's European Grand Prix with the Brawn GP cars of championship leader Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello second and third.

With ambient temperatures having risen to 28°C (82°F) in Spain, the track surface on the urban street circuit topped 45°C (113°F) as the second one and a half-hour session of the day began. Alonso challenged for the top spot all session long although heavy contract with the BMW of Nick Heidfeld looked have brought a premature end to both men's days.

As Heidfeld took a wide line into the final corner, Alonso locked up both front tyres before diving inside the German. Heidfeld's left-rear wheel subsequently drove over the top of Alonso's right-front, launching the BMW into the air and almost upside down as Alonso, minus his front wing, was also able to return to the pits. Another man in the wars was World Champion Lewis Hamilton, who ran only a trio of laps after sliding out wide onto the rumble strips, spinning and collecting the inside wall of Turn 20.

Alonso's eventual leading time of 1.39.404 could have been bettered by the Spaniard had he not spun on his penultimate lap. Second and third for Brawn GP signals a return to the sharp end for the Brackley team, which has struggled against its rivals due to a lack of grip in the last three races.

The symmetry continued with the two Williams of Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima next up, followed by the superb Adrian Sutil who - having challenged for top ten positions all day - wound up sixth in a Force India which features a revised aerodynamics package. Giancarlo Fisichella boosted morale yet further by placing the team's second car in eighth place, sandwiching the BMW of Robert Kubica in the process.

The leading Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel - whose contract has just been extended until the end of 2011 - finished the day in ninth place on what looks to be a challenging weekend for the Milton Keynes squad; he beat Finns Kovalainen and Räikkönen as Jarno Trulli placed next with Renault new boy Romain Grosjean impressing with 13th place. The second Red Bull Racing of Mark Webber struggled as a plastic carrier back was caught on his rear diffuser early on in the session, although the Australian's car lacks overall grip.

Sébastien Buemi is the lead Toro Rosso in 16th although rising cockpit temperatures resulted in burns to the Swiss driver's right food in the dying minutes. Heidfeld, absent at the end of the session, finished the day an angry 17th as the second Ferrari of Luca Badoer wound up 18th as the Italian replaces Felipe Massa for the first time. Jaime Alguersuari ended the day 19th in his home country ahead of World Champion Hamilton, who has work to do in order to make up as much lost time as possible on Saturday morning.

Third and final practice for the European Grand Prix will start at 11am local time (BST +1 / GMT+2) on Saturday.

Source: GP Update