Reigning Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton was quickest at the end of the second practice session for the Canadian Grand Prix.

After topping the timesheet at the end of FP1 at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on Pirelli’s super-soft tyres, Hamilton went half-a-second faster on the ultra-softs in the second session, finishing with a lap of 1m14.212s.

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel split Hamilton and Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg, with the leading German driver a quarter of a second down on the Briton, and the same distance ahead of his compatriot.

Hamilton, who has claimed four pole positions and four race wins in eight attempts in Canada, earlier topped the timesheet with a 1m14.941s on the soft compound tyres.

Championship leader Rosberg later usurped Hamilton by 0.2s, albeit using the ultra-softs at the time, before the latter then underlined his superiority with a lap 0.181s up on his pole position from last year.

Vettel, with Ferrari running a turbo upgrade this weekend on its engine, could at least take some comfort in being able to split the Mercedes duo.

Team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, however, could only manage the eighth quickest time, a second behind Hamilton and three quarters of a second off Vettel’s pace.

With both Red Bull drivers in possession of Renault’s updated engine that only Daniel Ricciardo enjoyed in Monaco en route to pole and second in the race, he and team-mate Max Verstappen do not appear as close at this track.

Although Verstappen, reprimanded for baulking Williams’s Valtteri Bottas in FP1, edged Ricciardo by just 0.012s, the pair finished over nine tenths of a second behind Hamilton.

Bottas and Jenson Button in his McLaren both set exactly the same time of 1m15.213s, 1.001s off of Hamilton, with the former the first to post the time to give him sixth place ahead of the veteran in seventh.

Button, late into the session due to his team changing his engine for the one used in Monaco because of an oil leak, was at least quicker than 11th-placed team-mate Fernando Alonso by 0.237s.

Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg and the Toro Rosso of Carlos Sainz Jr completed the top 10, with the latter 1.198s adrift of Hamilton.

Behind the second Force India of Sergio Perez in 12th was Williams’s Felipe Massa, with the team doing a remarkable job of getting back on track for FP2 after he wrecked the rear of his car with a crash into a barrier in FP1.

Daniil Kvyat was 14th in his Toro Rosso ahead of Romain Grosjean and Renault’s Kevin Magnussen, with the French manufacturer continuing to struggle despite the power unit update.

Jolyon Palmer, now running the same spec engine as Magnussen who had the new system for Monaco, was 20th behind Sauber pair Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson who were either side of the second Haas of Esteban Gutierrez, the latter feeling better after missing Thursday through illness.

At the back of the field, Pascal Wehrlein finished four tenths of a second up on Manor team-mate Rio Haryanto.

FP2 RESULTS

Hamilton tops Friday practice for Canadian Grand Prix