His mechanics then used the intervening 150 minutes to good effect so when the Spaniard returned to the track, he ultimately set a lap of one minute 15.778secs, just over 0.4secs adrift of Massa's morning best.

Massa was second quickest in the afternoon with a lap of 1:15.854, and avoided a scare late on when he ran wide into the gravel at the long, sweeping right-hand curve of Estoril, just managing to miss a wall on his exit.

Ferrari team-mate and reigning world champion Kimi Raikkonen was third quickest, pushing Lewis Hamilton in his McLaren into fourth.

The other top drivers were Sebastian Vettel in fifth, current championship leader Robert Kubica in sixth, Heikki Kovalainen in seventh, Nick Heidfeld in eighth, Nelson Piquet in ninth and David Coulthard in tenth.

But Coulthard's fellow Brit Jenson Button struggled and was 17th in the afternoon to follow up his 18th position in the morning. 

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