Mark Webber led the way again in second practice for the Spanish Grand Prix, but there was encouragement for Red Bull's rivals as McLaren's Lewis Hamilton was just 0.039sec off the pace as he split Webber and teammate Sebastian Vettel.
For a while, in the middle of the session, the Red Bull duo were nearly two seconds clear of the field – and that was not solely because they had tried the soft tires (which appeared today to offer a 2sec lap time boost) before most as Renault, Red Bull's nearest rival at that point in the afternoon, was on the same rubber. But when McLaren switched to softs, the gap closed considerably, with Hamilton getting between the Red Bulls and closing to within 0.039sec of Webber.
Jenson Button took fourth in the other McLaren, 0.7sec off the pace. Fernando Alonso was top Ferrari in fifth, a further 0.3sec down and just ahead of the Mercedes. Both Alonso and Hamilton had enjoyed spells on top using hard tires in the first half-hour before the soft-tire runners came into play.
Felipe Massa was 0.8sec off his Ferrari teammate Alonso's time in eighth, followed by Kamui Kobayashi's Sauber.
Renault's early switch to softs had given it a few minutes in the limelight mid-session, but by the end Nick Heidfeld and Vitaly Petrov were down in 10th and 12th, either side of the second Sauber of Sergio Perez.
Farther back, Lotus' upgrade package looked like it was paying dividends as Heikki Kovalainen beat Adrian Sutil's Force India and got within 0.3sec of the German's teammate Paul di Resta.
Like practice one, the session proved relatively uneventful. Both Massa and Hispania's Tonio Liuzzi visited the gravel, and Hamilton, Alonso and Button had traffic frustrations with Narain Karthikeyan, Jaime Alguersuari and Petrov, respectively.
• Click here for a list of articles from all teams following practice.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m22.470s 35
2. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m22.509s + 0.039 27
3. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m22.826s + 0.356 37
4. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m23.188s + 0.718 32
5. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m23.568s + 1.098 34
6. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m23.586s + 1.116 35
7. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m23.981s + 1.511 30
8. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m24.278s + 1.808 30
9. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m24.290s + 1.820 33
10. Nick Heidfeld Renault 1m24.366s + 1.896 31
11. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m24.483s + 2.013 38
12. Vitaly Petrov Renault 1m24.786s + 2.316 43
13. Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m25.296s + 2.826 33
14. Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1m25.303s + 2.833 38
15. Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m25.457s + 2.987 34
16. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 1m25.603s + 3.133 43
17. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m26.073s + 3.603 32
18. Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 1m26.417s + 3.947 37
19. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1m27.123s + 4.653 20
20. Jarno Trulli Lotus-Renault 1m27.189s + 4.719 34
21. Jerome D'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 1m28.036s + 5.566 36
22. Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1m28.062s + 5.592 28
23. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1m29.469s + 6.999 28
24. Tonio Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth 1m29.476s + 7.006 31
All Timing Unofficial