The chances of Lewis Hamilton pulling off a motor-racing miracle in the French Grand Prix looked bleak today when he could finish only fourth fastest in the second practice session at Magny-Cours.

Hamilton, second to Felipe Massa in the morning, was again beaten by the Ferrari ace plus this time his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen.

But all three were outdriven in the second session by a determined Fernando Alonso who flung his Renault through the corners and bouncing high over the kerbs on the way to a best lap in 1min 15.778secs.

That was just under a tenth of a second faster than Massa, 0.2secs ahead of Raikkonen and nearly half a second better than Hamilton.

Britain's big hope had gone into the eighth round of the world championship bullishly insisting he had an outside chance of winning despite being lumbered with a 10-place grid penalty. That was the punishment imposed for his pit-lane howler in Canada two weeks ago when he failed to spot a red traffic light and rammed world champion Raikkonen's stationary car.

Should the McLaren driver claim pole position tomorrow the best he could start from is 11th on the grid. But if Alonso, Massa and Raikkonen maintain their pace in qualifying Hamilton will almost certainly find himself starting from among the usual backmarkers and from there it will be impossible to take the chequered flag.

Proof that Hamilton was driving on, and beyond, the ragged edge came midway through the second session when he careered off at the 170mph Estoril bend and only managed to regain control with his sliding car just feet from a concrete wall.

Fellow Brit David Coulthard was 10th in the Red Bull while Jenson Button continued to struggle with his Honda back in 17th place.

Away from the action on the track, Hamilton distanced himself from claims he would support a drivers' strike at the British Grand Prix next month.

Alonso, a director of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association, claimed a grid walkout was a possibility if the FIA refused to renegotiate a huge rise in the fee drivers must pay for the Super Licence required to compete in Formula One.

The Spaniard said the drivers are angry about the FIA's decision to claw back some of the cost of safety initiatives by increasing licence fees to £8,300 plus £1,700 per point scored this year, up from the previous £1,440 cost with £400 added for each point.

It means leading drivers such as Hamilton and Raikkonen will be paying in excess of £170,000 for the right to race. But having said yesterday that he would support whatever decision the GPDA made - Hamilton is not a member of the association - he moved to clarify his position today.

Hamilton said: "I am not involved in any strike talks. I am here to race, for myself and for the fans.

"I don't believe for one minute the drivers will take such drastic measures. We have the British Grand Prix in a couple of weeks' time and other grands prix to follow and I'm not planning on missing any of them."