Finland's Kimi Raikkonen topped the times for Lotus in Friday afternoon's second free practice session for this weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix.

Driving with typical aggression and aplomb, the "Ice Man" clocked a best time of 1min 34.154sec on his medium tries midway through the 90 minutes to outpace nearest rival Australian Mark Webber of Red Bull by 0.03sec.

Webber, preparing for his 200th Formula One race on Sunday, clocked 1:34.184 to finish ahead of his third-placed teammate defending triple champion German Sebastian Vettel by almost one-tenth of a second.

After the agony and angst of their early-season intra-team problems - triggered by the ruthless Vettel's decision to ignore team orders and snatch victory from Webber in Malaysia - the Australian demonstrated that he has no intention of doing anything.

To achieve that, however, he may have to overcome an expected strong challenge from in-form Ferrari.

Two-time champion and winner of last Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix Spaniard Fernando Alonso was fourth for the "scarlet scuderia" ahead of Briton Paul di Resta of Force India, Brazilian Felipe Massa - who had been quickest in the morning's opening session - and Frenchman Romain Grosjean in the second Lotus.

German Nico Rosberg was eighth for Mercedes ahead of compatriot Adrian Sutil in the second Force India car and Briton Lewis Hamilton, in the second Mercedes.

Briton Jenson Button, seeking to close the performance gap to the leaders in his improving McLaren, was unable to rise beyond 11th, a full 1.2sec slower than Raikkonen at the Sakhir circuit.

The track temperature was 38 C and the air temperature a relatively moderate 33 C on the circuit - slightly cooler and more comfortable conditions than the previous day.

Opposition groups demanding more political freedoms in the Gulf kingdom have announced plans to protest as practice got under way and after clashes between radical groups and police overnight.

But there was no evidence of unrest in and around the track.

Several armored security vehicles were used to slow and check traffic or were parked discreetly in the shade.

There were no signs of security worries among the teams after the FIA governing body and F1 promoters insisted the race would go ahead as planned.

AFP - Global Times