Lewis Hamilton made sure that McLaren stayed on top of the timesheets, after setting a blistering lap in the second free practice session for the Chinese Grand Prix.
Hamilton set his time mid-way through the session, bumping Mercedes GP’s Nico Rosberg to second. Jenson Button continued his strong start to the weekend in third – although he ended the session nearly four tenths off his team-mates’s efforts.
Ferrari continued to have a poor start to the weekend, with both of its drivers well down the order. Although Fernando Alonso was able to complete 33 laps, after his technical problems in practice one, he could not challenge the front runners and had to settle for tenth. Despite this, the Spaniard was able to lap three tenths of a second faster than Felipe Massa (11th) in the sister car.
Jaime Alguersuari was an impressive eighth for Toro Rosso as team-mate Sebastien Buemi sat out the session, following his horrifying accident in the first practice.
Toro Rosso has confirmed that Buemi’s crashed was called by a front right upright failure – which was part of a raft of new parts introduced onto the STR5 for this weekend. However, the team has not yet determined how the mechanical piece actually failed.
The team also concluded that the wheel tethers, which were connected to the uprights, did not work and thus caused the wheels to break away and pitch over the spectator fences.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Hamilton McLaren 1:35.217 26 2. Rosberg Mercedes 1:35.465 + 0.248 22 3. Button McLaren 1:35.593 + 0.376 26 4. Schumacher Mercedes 1:35.602 + 0.385 28 5. Vettel Red Bull 1:35.791 + 0.574 30 6. Webber Red Bull 1:35.995 + 0.778 29 7. Sutil Force India 1:36.254 + 1.037 31 8. Alguersuari Toro Rosso 1:36.377 + 1.160 43 9. Kubica Renault 1:36.389 + 1.172 29 10. Alonso Ferrari 1:36.604 + 1.387 33 11. Massa Ferrari 1:36.944 + 1.727 36 12. Petrov Renault 1:36.986 + 1.769 27 13. de la Rosa Sauber 1:37.421 + 2.204 32 14. Kobayashi Sauber 1:37.431 + 2.214 33 15. Barrichello Williams 1:37.657 + 2.440 30 16. Liuzzi Force India 1:37.804 + 2.587 31 17. Hulkenberg Williams 1:37.867 + 2.650 29 18. Trulli Lotus 1:39.624 + 4.407 35 19. Kovalainen Lotus 1:39.947 + 4.730 30 20. Glock Virgin 1:40.233 + 5.016 27 21. Chandhok HRT 1:41.008 + 5.791 32 22. di Grassi Virgin 1:41.107 + 5.890 28 23. Senna HRT 1:41.345 + 6.128 32 24. Buemi Toro Rosso no time
