Raikkonen posted his best lap of his 103 with 50 minutes remaining, clocking a 1m30.665s on the soft tire, 0.216 seconds faster than his qualifying time for last weekend’s British Grand Prix.

The Finn’s time was also six tenths up on the best from day one set by Fernando Alonso in his McLaren.

For the second successive day Mercedes development driver Esteban Ocon had to settle for second, finishing 0.547s down on Raikkonen.

And for the second successive day, Ocon also racked up the most laps, following up his 123 on Day 1 with 139 on Day 2.

Pierre Gasly enjoyed a better day in the Red Bull after difficulties on Tuesday when cabling had to be replaced inside the car, restricting him to just seven laps in the morning before rain arrived.

The new GP2 race winner managed 103 laps, with his best a 1:31.429s on soft tires to finish third on the timesheets.

Force India’s 17-year-old development driver Nikita Mazepin finished 0.896s behind Raikkonen, having set his time on super-soft tires, and 0.203s ahead of McLaren reserve Stoffel Vandoorne, whose best lap from his 114 was run on Pirelli’s soft compound.

Valtteri Bottas was fifth quickest in his Williams, 1.758s behind Raikkonen, completing a late run with the double-decker rear-wing first seen during May’s in-season test at Barcelona.

Bottas was followed by Haas development driver Santino Ferrucci, with Renault’s Jolyon Palmer – primarily running the rule over a new suspension – eighth, 2.643s adrift of Raikkonen.

Palmer stopped on track just after the checkered flag was brought out.

On his F1 debut, Red Bull junior Sergio Sette Camara fared well with Toro Rosso, completing 82 laps and ending up 3.375s off the ultimate pace.

On his third outing for Manor, Jordan King was 10th and 4.395s in arrears, with only Pascal Wehrlein slower in the 2014 Mercedes.

Wehrlein was helping Pirelli assess compounds and structure concepts for its 2017 tires, completing 128 laps, and with times not a concern as he finished 5.517s down.