However, Alonso had other ideas and improved from his seventh place in first practice to finish ahead of Hamilton and set the third fastest timeof the day.
Most of us who have been at this for a while know that trying to maintain a set number of hours or a particular timeofday to work a business is as likely as expecting us to wear white gloves and pillbox hats again.
Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel, whose team-mate Mark Webber set the fastest timeof the first dayof the test, was fifth fastest, just dipping under the Australian's best lap with a 1:21.258.