Raikkonen tops times at Monza in practice 2.

Kimi Raikkonen set the pace for Ferrari in the second free practice session at Monza on Friday, ahead of this Sunday's Italian Grand Prix, the final European race of the season.

Raikkonen ended proceedings with a 1 minute 23.861 second lap, which was seven hundredths up on Robert Kubica, who was 'best of the rest' for BMW Sauber.

After a difficult morning session, with conditions marred by rain, FP2 was a complete contrast and bright sunshine meant that all the runners took advantage of the drier conditions. Indeed the track had pretty much dried out after the first 30 minutes of the 90 minute session.

Nick Heidfeld meanwhile was third, fractionally slower than his team-mate, while current championship leader Lewis Hamilton was fourth for McLaren-Mercedes on a 1m 23.983s.

Nico Rosberg went well for Williams and finished proceedings in fifth, followed by provisional Belgian GP winner Felipe Massa, Heikki Kovalainen and Red Bull Racing's Mark Webber.

Force India's Adrian Sutil was a surprise ninth fastest for the Silverstone-based outfit, building on the quickest time he posted in the rain-disrupted FP1.

Sebastian Vettel completed the top ten for Toro Rosso, with fellow Red Bull men David Coulthard and Sebastien Bourdais eleventh and twelfth respectively.

Giancarlo Fisichella was 13th, while the Honda's of Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button came in 14th and 15th followed by Kazuki Nakajima.

The Toyota's and Renault's brought up the rear, with Timo Glock 17th, Fernando Alonso 18th, Jarno Trulli 19th and Nelson Piquet Jr 20th. Piquet Jr missed the final 20 minutes of FP2 after spinning at the second corner and beaching his R28.

Practice now continues on Saturday morning, before qualifying at 13.00 hours [British time].