Quickest in this morning's first free practice session at the Grand Prix of Canada, Briton Lewis Hamilton repeated his feat this afternoon, beating the two Ferraris.

Lewis Hamilton, McLaren (Photo: WRI2)

Fernando Alonso proved that the Ferrari F2012 was fast on Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, setting the fastest time early in the session. But the Spaniard had a few off-course excursions during the session, spinning out of control once.

The session was red flagged when Bruno Senna planted his Williams-Renault in the “Bonjour Québec” wall, damaging the car.

Several drivers short cut the last chicane and missed apexes during this one hour an a half session.

Flow-viz paint on the brake ducts of the Ferrari. (Photo: WRI2)

At the restart, Hamilton ran the quickest lap of the day. With 20 minutes to go, Felipe Massa (Ferrari) took second place but minutes later his teammate Alonso beat him.

Hamilton's teammate, Jenson Button exited the garage with only 15 minutes to go in the session. The team had to change the seal of the gearbox after the first practice session. However, after the work was done, the mechanics found another problem. Button ended up in 9th place, having run only 14 laps compared to 43 for Hamilton.

At the chequered, Hamilton was still quickest with a time of 1m15.259, The two Ferraris of Alonso and Massa ended the day in second and third places, respectively.

Vettel's Red Bull was fitted with this impressive rack of Pitot tubes. (Photo: WRI2)

Fourth was reigning World Champion Sebastian Vettel in the Red Bull, followed by Paul Di Resta (Force India), Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber), Michael Schumacher (Mercedes), Nico Hulkenberg in the other Force India, Button and Nico Rosberg in 10th place in the second Mercedes.

The Lotuses were disappointing. Romain Grosjean was classified 14th, in front of his famed teammate, Kimi Raikkonen.

Heikki Kovalainen put his Caterham in 16th place ahead of the two Toro Rossos.

Grand Prix of Canada, Montreal, free practice 2*:

1 - Lewis Hamilton (McLaren MP4/27-Mercedes) - 1'15"259
2 - Fernando Alonso (Ferrari F2012) - 1'15"313
3 - Felipe Massa (Ferrari F2012) - 1'15"410
4 - Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull RB8-Renault) - 1'15"531
5 - Paul Di Resta (Force India VJM05-Mercedes) - 1'15"544
6 - Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber C31-Ferrari) - 1'15"651
7 - Michael Schumacher (Mercedes MGP W03) - 1'15"697
8 - Nico Hulkenberg (Force India VJM05-Mercedes) - 1'15"799
9 - Jenson Button (McLaren MP4/27-Mercedes) - 1'15"812
10 - Nico Rosberg (Mercedes MGP W03) - 1'15"878
11 - Sergio Perez (Sauber C31-Ferrari) - 1'15"898
12 - Mark Webber (Red Bull RB8-Renault) - 1'15"907
13 - Pastor Maldonado (Williams FW34-Renault) - 1'15"987
14 - Romain Grosjean (Lotus E20-Renault) - 1'16"360
15 - Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus E20-Renault) - 1'16"562
16 - Heikki Kovalainen (Caterham CT01-Renault) - 1'16"981
17 - Bruno Senna (Williams FW34-Renault) - 1'17"022
18 - Vitaly Petrov (Caterham CT01-Renault) - 1'17"075
19 - Jean Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso STR7-Ferrari) - 1'17"124
20 - Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso STR7-Ferrari) - 1'17"716
21 - Pedro De La Rosa (HRT F112-Cosworth) - 1'18"908
22 - Timo Glock (Marussia MR01-Cosworth) - 1'19"084
23 - Narain Karthikeyan (HRT F112-Cosworth) - 1'19"378
24 - Charles Pic (Marussia MR01-Cosworth) – 1'19"902
*Unofficial timing