Chinese GP : Maldonado again leads Barrichello in FP2

The second Friday practice would get underway with AT&T Williams driver Pastor Maldonado leaving the pits early on in the hour and a half session. There would be a rush of times been set with Alguersuari setting a 1m:44.604 while Buemi would move ahead with a 1m:43.655. Hamilton would go fastest with a 1m:40.207 while Schumacher moved up to third, 1m:42.366.

Rosberg would go second with a 1m:40.479 while Hamilton would improve with a 1m:40.121. Button was up to second with a lap time of 1m:40.207. For the AT&T Williams team both Pastor and Rubens were down the order but would improve with Pastor moving up to sixth with a 1m:41.372 while Rubens was in twelfth with a 1m:42.303.

Button would improve to go fastest with a 1m:39.431 while team-mate Hamilton had pitted. Massa was now third with Rosberg fourth from Perez, Petrov, Pastor, Schumacher, and Heidfeld. Rubens had lowered his time with a 1m:41.857 but remained in twelfth. Button would pit as Schumacher jumped up the order to be fifth, 1m:40.842.

Pastor had pitted, currently in tenth. This would become eleventh as Kobayashi moved into eighth. Rubens would also pit as we had both Red Bull cars take to the track. Heidfeld would make a significant improvement moving up to third, 1m:40.271. But this would become fourth as Alonso took third, 1m:40.258. both McLaren's had pitted as Webber's first lap saw him only in twenty first. Vettel was nineteenth as the track started to empty. Vettel's next lap was a 1m:44.194 that saw him in seventeenth. It was a slow start for both Red Bull drivers.

Rosberg was back out on the track, currently in sixth. Sutil was back in his Force India for the afternoon session and was up to eleventh, 1m:41.299. Rosberg would go fastest in sector one and two. He would complete his lap with a 1m:38.912 to go fastest with twenty minutes of the session complete. Pastor was back out on the track joined by Button.

Pastor was currently in twelfth and Rubens fourteenth. Sutil was on an improved lap as Hamilton also left the pits. Sutil was now seventh, 1m:40.641, as Rosberg again went fastest in sector one. Rubens was back out on the track while team-mate Pastor would move into third with a 1m:39.667. This time was set on the softer tyre while those around him were still on the hard.

Rubens was also on an improved lap setting a 1m:41.488 but it would not be good enough to see him move from fifteenth. Pastor would continue on his soft tyres going fastest in sector one. He would fail to improve his time remaining in third while Rubens was still on the harder compound. Pastor would pit as the Red Bull cars were still down the order in seventeenth and eighteenth with an hour remaining.

The Renaults of Heidfeld and Petrov were in sixth and eighth. Vettel and Webber would continue their runs on the harder tyres but at the front Massa would go fastest with a 1m:38.507. Rosberg was second from Button, Pastor, Hamilton, and Heidfeld in sixth. Pastor would pit but he would return for his third run of the session. Rosberg would move ahead of Massa, running on the softer tyre, with a lap of 1m:37.943. It appeared that Pastor was now on a high fuel run as his lap times had dropped off considerably. Buemi would also take to the softer tyre moving up to sixth.

After damaging his car in the previous session Heidfeld would do it again spinning his car at Turn two damaging his front wing. He would try to return to his pit after getting out of the gravel but he would stop his car behind the paddock. Rubens was now out on the softer tyre but could only manage ninth with his lap of 1m:39.925. Despite another series of laps Rubens could not improve while Pastor was nine laps into his longer run. After help from Renault mechanics marshals were able to get Heidfeld's Renault back to the pit lane.

Alonso was in his pit with a hydraulic problem was Webber moved up to fourth with a 1m:39.327. Kobayashi was now in fifth on his soft tyre run. Also gaining from the use of the softer tyre was Schumacher with a time that would see him in second, 1m:38.105. Pastor would pit after twelve laps having dropped to seventh as others went faster. Both McLaren's and Vettel were now out on their soft tyres. Vettel would move up to third with a 1m:38.155 as Hamilton went fastest with a 1m:37.854. Button would move into second seeing Rosberg third followed by Schumacher and Vettel.

But Vettel would find extra pace going fastest with a 1m:37.688. Heidfeld would return to the track moving up to eighth on the softer tyre. As the final twenty minutes counted down drivers started to carry out longer runs with no real change in the times. Vettel would remain fastest from Hamilton, Button, Rosberg, Schumacher, Massa, Sutil, Heidfeld, Petrov, and Webber in tenth. As for the AT&T Williams team their drivers would finish in twelfth and sixteenth. Once again Pastor would lead Rubens which must be encouraging for the Williams team but also it would come down to whether the new parts that the team was trialling were having the desired effect.

Pos  Driver	    Team		   Time       Laps
 1.  S Vettel       Red Bull-Renault       1m37.688s  34
 2.  L Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes       1m37.854s  22
 3.  J Button       McLaren-Mercedes       1m37.935s  31
 4.  N Rosberg      Mercedes               1m37.943s  34
 5.  M Schumacher   Mercedes               1m38.105s  29
 6.  F Massa        Ferrari                1m38.507s  36
 7.  A Sutil        Force India-Mercedes   1m38.735s  35
 8.  N Heidfeld     Renault                1m38.805s  26
 9.  V Petrov       Renault                1m38.859s  31
10.  M Webber       Red Bull-Renault       1m39.327s  33
11.  K Kobayashi    Sauber-Ferrari         1m39.538s  33
12.  P Maldonado    Williams-Cosworth      1m39.667s  37
13.  S Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m39.771s  18
14.  F Alonso       Ferrari                1m39.779s  17
15.  J Alguersuari  Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m39.828s  25
16.  R Barrichello  Williams-Cosworth      1m39.925s  32
17.  S Perez        Sauber-Ferrari         1m39.953s  30
18.  H Kovalainen   Lotus-Renault          1m40.476s  30
19.  J Trulli       Lotus-Renault          1m41.482s  32
20.  N Karthikeyan  HRT-Cosworth           1m42.902s  25
21.  T Liuzzi       HRT-Cosworth           1m43.850s  3
22.  J D'Ambrosio   Virgin-Cosworth        1m44.008s  35
23.  T Glock        Virgin-Cosworth        1m44.747s  12