Alonso does it again!

[davewilson]

Fernando Alonso continued his strong run here in Monte Carlo this afternoon when once again he set the best time of the session in his McLaren MP4-22. The Spaniard was followed by Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen in P2 and teammate Lewis Hamilton in third. Jarno Trulli, Giancarlo Fisichella and Felipe Massa rounded out the top six.

Beautiful weather continued here in Monaco this afternoon for the second free practice session of the opening day of action. Toro Rosso’s Tonio Liuzzi kicks the action off a few minutes in followed by Renault’s Giancarlo Fisichella, who had an accident here this morning.

Lewis Hamilton  doesn’t take long to stamp his authority taking the top position away from BMW’s Robert Kubica early in the session with teammate Fernando Alonso soon up into second spot. Not to be outdone this early, Kubica puts in another flying lap to reclaim top spot while Kimi Raikkonen goes third.

Hamilton, who almost loses his McLaren going into the final turn, returns to the top of the timesheets as he goes faster and then faster still! Amazing stuff from this young rookie racer. Several drivers, including Mass and Heidfeld, have moments at the Swimming Pool but carry on without any real cause for concern.

Kimi Raikkonen takes P2 as Sato also has a moment at the Swimming Pool and David Coulthard has a moment at Loews and returns to the pits to make sure no real damage was done. Alonso moves ahead of his young teammate, just as he did in session one here this morning.

Almost an hour in and the Super Aguri of Anthony Davidson crashes into the tyres at Ste Devote and only moments later Lewis Hamilton finally comes to grief with a hard hit into the barriers, also at Ste Devote. His session comes to an end, but thankfully, he is uninjured in the shunt.

The session is red flagged with twenty one minutes remaining after Adrian Sutil crashes his Spyker at Portier. Marshalls get to work in order to clear the shattered car and the session is soon back underway.

Jarno Trulli puts in a good lap to take third from Kimi Raikkonen, who then puts in another flyer to take P2.

Only minutes remain and drivers are out for their final laps of the day. Giancarlo Fisichella jumps back up to fifth, behind Trulli with Felipe Massa ending the day sixth overall. Ralf Schumacher goes into the barriers at the Swimming Pool with just a minute remaining and thankfully he is uninjured. Once again it was Fernando Alonso at the top of the leaderboard.