At the end of the 90-minute run it was Lewis Hamilton who finished on top of the timesheets, although Kimi Raikkonen had earlier set the fastest time of the day.

Championship leader Hamilton, again on speaking terms with McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso after their fallout during the Hungarian Grand Prix, clocked one minute 28.469secs for the 5.338km track.

That, however, was half a second slower than the fastest lap from Ferrari star Raikkonen in the first practice session of 1min 27.988secs.

Raikkonen and team-mate Felipe Massa dominated the morning period, with Fernando Alonso and Hamilton 1.2secs adrift such was the pace of the scarlet machines.

Raikkonen, 20 points behind Hamilton in the standings, was forced to settle for the second quickest time in the afternoon as it was clear his car was running a heavier fuel load.

The Finn finished 0.293secs behind Hamilton, with the Toyotas of Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli third and fourth, while Massa was fifth and Alonso sixth.

The top 12 drivers were all within one second of one another, with David Coulthard 11th for Red Bull Racing and back on track after a fire brought a dramatic end to the first session for the Scot.

Jenson Button was 14th for Honda, with Anthony Davidson 18th in a Super Aguri he buried in a tyre wall at turn three, five minutes before the end.