Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen was the leader once more in Friday's second practice for the Spanish Grand Prix, but for sure this was an unusual session. It started with Robert Kubica setting the pace for BMW Sauber on 1m 23.547s, before Force India's Adrian Sutil went ahead for with 1m 22.548s.

When Giancarlo Fisichella bettered his team mate’s time, with 1m 22.494s, the squad’s co-owner Dr Vijay Mallya saw a Force India one-two. That pertained for some time, until David Coulthard finally shoved his Red Bull to the fore with 1m 22.321s.

Then Nico Rosberg grabbed the limelight for Williams with 1m 22.302s, only to become the tail-ender in a Williams one-two as Kazuki Nakajima aced him with 1m 22.172s. Not to be outdone, Renault got in on that double act. Fernando Alonso posted 1m 22.034s, before Nelson Piquet bettered that with 1m 22.019s.

Finally, Raikkonen slapped on some soft Bridgestones to lap his F2008 in 1m 21.935s to settle the matter.

Piquet stayed second, Alonso third and Nakajima fourth, but Felipe Massa slipped ahead of Rosberg with 1m 22.229s for Ferrari, and so did Mark Webber with 1m 22.238s for Red Bull. Behind Rosberg, Coulthard improved to 1m 22.289s for eighth ahead of Fisichella and Sutil, who did not better their times.

You had to look down to 11th place for Lewis Hamilton, on 1m 22.685s, having spun early in Turn 10. Towards the end it was clear that McLaren were more focused on race running on Friday. They lost their second MP4-23 when Heikki Kovalainen rolled to a halt in Turn Six with a mechanical problem. The Finn’s lap of 1m 23.264s prior to that left him 16th.

Kubica worked down to 1m 22.788s for 12th, ahead of BMW Sauber team mate Nick Heidfeld on 1m 23.130s, then came Jarno Trulli on 1m 23.224s for Toyota, and Jenson Button on 1m 23.263s for Honda.

Behind Kovalainen, Sebastian Vettel took back the upper hand in the inter-Toro Rosso duel, with 1m 23.661s compared to team mate Sebastien Bourdais’ 1m 23.684s. Timo Glock rounded out the drivers beneath 1m 24s, with 1m 23.883s in the second Toyota, then came the Super Aguris of Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson, on 1m 25.110s and 1m 25.163s respectively.

What did it all mean? Clearly several of the leading runners were doing race work with relatively high fuel loads, and a lot of things will be different on Saturday - except, one suspects, a Ferrari being fastest.