Mat Coch writes:

Nico Rosberg gained the laurels after setting the fastest time in both opening practice sessions, though this afternoon’s perhaps rather less meaningful than the morning’s as teams shifted focus to race set up.

Opening practice was a venture into the unknown; a dirty track, a totally new one to some, which saw drivers rediscovering their cars before fine tuning their setups.

Rosberg set the early running, confirming Mercedes expected one-lap pace which was only reinforced by Lewis Hamilton not far behind in fifth.

As in the opening session the Sauber drivers were first on track, queuing at the end of the pitlane as the lights turned green. Marussia, which had comparatively little running this morning, was also out early with both Max Chilton and Jules Bianchi.

And where this morning's session was punctuated by installation lapsy, followed by long stretches without a car on track, the second session started with teams launching straight into their programmes.

Williams, which had compared different nose cones between Pastor Maldonado and Valtteri Bottas' cars in opening practice, was also on track early; Maldonado setting the fastest time with a 1:18.863.

It was soon bettered by Bottas, the Finn stopping the watches at 1:18.360, as the circuit bore witness to almost all drivers early on. Still, times were two seconds adrift of Rosberg's fastest time from the morning session.

However from there times began to tumble, triggered by Sergio Perez on a 1:17.854 before being immediately bettered by Kimi Raikkonen with a 1:17.309. Raikkonen was out of position in the earlier session, managing just the eleventh fastest time while teammate Romain Grosjean was third. As if to reinforce that fact Grosjean soon bettered Raikkonen's time by three tenths, dipping into the 1:16 bracket for the first time in the session.

After ten minutes the action was non-stop with all but Vettel on track; Grosjean going faster still while Hamilton locked up, missing the apex at Mirabeau. Recovering, he jumped to fourth on the timing screens, though almost six tenths of a second down on his Lotus rival.

Ahead of Hamilton was Rosberg, proving Mercedes morning pace was no fluke while Felipe Massa was not far behind, just two tenths shy of Grosjean's chart-topping pace. He was soon joined by Fernando Alonso who set a time just one-thousandth of a second faster than his teammate, suggesting the Ferrari pair were getting the most out of their cars.