Thursday saw Juan Pablo Montoya top session one and Fernando Alonso topple the Colombian in the afternoon.

But a gutsy drive saw the McLaren return to P1 on day two with the benchmark time of 1:16.197.

Renault were forced to settle for second, but this time it was Giancarlo Fisichella leading the Anglo-French squad’s charge.

The Italian fought hard with his McLaren rivals during the 45-minute run to finish just two tenths shy of Montoya’s time with a 1:16.403.

Third place went to Toyota’s Ralf Schumacher who, after being hit with a qualifying penalty on Thursday, finished three tenths down with a 1:16.508.

The German will pull all the pace he can from the TF105 with his hopes of success squandered by a misplaced tyre.

Ferrari also looked stronger on day two with Michael Schumacher finishing in fifth.

But the Scuderia still have a lot of work to do with the champion’s best effort still over half a second shy of Montoya’s pace.

The session was incident free other than a short period of waved yellows when Nick Heidfeld brushed the barriers in his Williams at St Devote.