Fernando Alonso has shown what he can do by topping the timesheets in Friday's second practice for the Brazilian GP.

Felipe Massa was poised to delight his legion of fans at Interlagos by topping the timesheets at the end of both 90-minute sessions.

But former two-time World Champion Alonso had other ideas and knocked Massa off top spot in the closing stages of the afternoon programme.

Massa was out in front in the opening session in his Ferrari, edging title rival Lewis Hamilton into second place in his McLaren by 0.190 seconds with a lap time of one minute 12.305secs.

Although marginally slower in the afternoon, Massa was all set to again take the honours when Renault's Alonso stole his thunder with a lap of 1:12.296secs.

Hamilton was a surprisingly lowly ninth, the kind of result he has to avoid in Sunday's race to become the youngest Champion in F1 history.

The Briton only has to finish in the top five to take the title, but struggled in stark contrast to a fortnight ago when he dominated in China en route to victory.

Conditions were hardly welcoming either as a grey, windy day was punctuated by the odd shower, upsetting any rhythm.

Heavy rain is forecast on Sunday, and as Massa has proven over the course of the season to date, he and his car have been unable to handle such conditions, and that could play into Hamilton's hands.

Today, Hamilton finished over half a second down on former team-mate Alonso, with Toyota's Jarno Trulli third and Kimi Raikkonen fourth in his Ferrari.

Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel, Nelson Piquet for Renault and Nico Rosberg in his Williams were also ahead of Hamilton in sixth, seventh and eighth places.

Williams' Kazuki Nakajima completed the top 10, followed by David Coulthard in his special-liveried Red Bull.

The Scot concludes his 15-season F1 career here in Sao Paulo, and to mark his retirement is backing the 'Wings for Life' campaign, which supports research into spinal cord injuries.

The cream car had to be agreed to by all the teams before Red Bull could put the car on the track.

Times
01 F. Alonso Renault 1:12.296 43 laps
02 F. Massa Ferrari 1:12.353 41 laps
03 J. Trulli Toyota 1:12.435 44 laps
04 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:12.600 32 laps
05 M. Webber Red Bull 1:12.650 45 laps
06 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:12.687 47 laps
07 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:12.703 44 laps
08 N. Rosberg Williams 1:12.761 42 laps
09 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:12.827 33 laps
10 K. Nakajima Williams 1:12.886 42 laps
11 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:12.896 38 laps
12 R. Kubica BMW 1:12.971 48 laps
13 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:13.038 49 laps
14 T. Glock Toyota 1:13.041 39 laps
15 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:13.213 37 laps
16 R. Barrichello Honda 1:13.221 39 laps
17 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:13.273 41 laps
18 J. Button Honda 1:13.341 49 laps
19 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:13.428 32 laps
20 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:13.691 33 laps