Fernando Alonso raised the home crowd's hopes by leading the way in second practice for the European Grand Prix in Valencia.
The Spanish hero's 1m39.283s heading into the final half hour put him on top by just 0.056 seconds over Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull.
It was a good session for the latter team at a track it had low expectations for. Vettel and team-mate Mark Webber both had spells in front, and held on to second and third at the end, both within 0.144s of Alonso.
Morning pacesetter Nico Rosberg - another man who topped the timing screens for a while - ended up fourth for Mercedes, followed by championship leader Lewis Hamilton the best of the McLarens.
Robert Kubica kept Renault among the frontrunners in sixth, while Felipe Massa took seventh despite missing half an hour in the middle of the session.
The Brazilian spun his Ferrari out of Turn 4 and came to a halt broadside across the circuit, the anti-stall system seemingly failing to react. The session was red-flagged for a while while the stranded Ferrari was retrieved, and it was brought back to the pits in time for Massa to rejoin later on.
Adrian Sutil (Force India), Jenson Button (McLaren) and Rubens Barrichello (Williams) filled the rest of the top ten spots, with Michael Schumacher only 11th for Mercedes.
In another session filled with tyre graining and run-off exploration, other drivers in trouble included Vitaly Petrov - who had a quick spin in his Renault - and Timo Glock, whose Virgin had to be parked trackside after 14 laps.
Fernando Alonso tops second practice in Valencia 
