McLaren's Jenson Button was fastest from Lotus's Romain Grosjean in practice at the Monaco Grand Prix.

The Englishman was one of very few drivers to run the faster of the two tyre types, before a rain shower 15 minutes into the afternoon session.

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso earlier set the pace in the first session, run in beautiful morning sunshine, by 0.365 secs from Grosjean.

Intermittent spells of rain wrecked the rest of the second session.

That meant Button's fastest time of one minute 15.746 seconds, which was 0.392 secs quicker than Grosjean, held for the rest of the afternoon.

Button, whose team-mate Lewis Hamilton was 11th fastest in the afternoon, said: "It's not a lot of running for a Thursday at Monaco. Hopefully Saturday will be a bit better."

The forecast for qualifying day on Saturday is that there is an 80% chance of rain, however.

Ferrari's Felipe Massa, showing improved form after being warned by his team to up his game following disappointing performances so far this season, was third fastest in the second session, just ahead of team-mate Alonso.

Williams driver Pastor Maldonado, who also ran the faster 'super-soft' tyre, was fifth fastest, ahead of Nico Rosberg's Mercedes and Red Bull's Mark Webber.

Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi was eighth fastest, ahead of Rosberg's team-mate Michael Schumacher and world champion Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull.

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Button heads Grosjean in Monaco