It means there can be no room for error from Alonso or Ferrari over the next four races prior to the summer break in August if they are to close such a yawning gap.

At least over the 25 turns that make up the Valencia Street Circuit that meanders its way through the port that staged the America’s Cup in 2007, Alonso posted a positive practice performance.

The double world champion set a time of one minute, 37.968 seconds for the 5.419km track, just under four tenths of a second slower than last year’s pole time set by Vettel.

Alonso finished 0.227secs quicker than McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, who has had to settle for second in each of his three visits here.

Vettel, who had finished 16th and 2.5secs behind Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber at the end of the first 90-minute session as the duo clearly ran different strategies, was back on the pace in FP2 as he was 0.297secs down on Alonso.

Overall, the top seven were covered by just over half-a-second, with Mercedes’ Michael Schumacher fourth quickest ahead of Felipe Massa in his Ferrari, McLaren’s Jenson Button and Webber.

Another half a second was then the gap to Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg who was followed by the Renault duo of Nick Heidfeld and Vitaly Petrov.

Adrian Sutil was 11th in his Force India, finishing three places and 0.7secs quicker than team-mate Paul di Resta, however the Scot produced a remarkable late performance.

Forced to sit out the first practice session as reserve driver Nico Hulkenberg took up his seat, the German emerged the only casualty of the day as he crashed out after 22 minutes.

The damage looked relatively minimal although the rear-left wheel buckled after Hulkenberg made contact with a wall.

However, after replacing the floor, Di Resta did not emerge until 11 minutes from the end of FP2, managing a mere seven laps.

The 25-year-old finished a creditable 14th as Williams pair Rubens Barrichello and Pastor Maldonado sandwiched the Force India duo.

Jaime Alguersuari also endured a frustrating afternoon as mechanical issues with his Toro Rosso – which included the replacement of a gearbox – saw him sit out the entire session.

Again Hispania’s Narain Karthikeyan was last of those who set a time, the Indian improving by just 0.020secs on his time in FP1 and nine seconds adrift of Alonso.

To underline such a poor performance, the fastest time following GP2 practice from Jules Bianchi was only 0.7secs slower than the Hispania driver.