» Bahrain GP 2nd Practice: Rosberg fastest

It was an all Mercedes benefit in the second free practice session at the 2010 Bahrain GP, with their engines powering the top-four fastest drivers of the second 90-minute session.

This time, it was Nico Rosberg who headed the timesheets, with team-mate Michael Schumacher under 0.5s back in third. Complete the top-four were the McLarens of Lewis Hamilton in 2nd and Jenson Button in 4th.

Rosberg moved to the top of the timesheets after 20 minutes of the session had elapsed, and he remained there for the rest of the session, taking a further tenth of his time at about the half-hour mark.

With much of the field opting to try longer runs and race set-ups, the lap times remained as static as the leaderboard itself.

In fifth was Sebastian Vettel ahead of his compatriot Nico Hülkenberg in the Williams. Sebastian was the only Red Bull backed driver to have a decent second practice session: his team-mate Mark Webber pulled into the pits with a driveshaft problem after only 5 laps’ running.

The Toro Rosso drivers fared little better than their sister team, as Sébastien Buemi was confined to the pit lane for literally the entire session. Jaim Alguersuari spent the session testing the limits of his STR5 through the new infield section of the Sakhir circuit, and was lucky not to throw the car into the barriers after spinning across the track.

Ferrari slipped down the timesheets after its pace in the morning, with Felipe Massa seventh and Fernando Alonso in ninth.

Splitting the Ferraris was the Renault of rookie Vitaly Petrov, who had an impressive session and showed a decent turn of pace.

Session 1 pacesetters Force India fell down the timesheets in the afternoon, with Adrian Sutil in 12th behind the two Saubers.

Of the rookie teams, Lotus got even with Virgin Racing and went quicker in this session, courtesy of some late low-fuel runs in the closing minutes of play. The 1Malaysia-owned outfit lapped within 5.5s of the front runners, as opposed to the 7-second gap shown in the morning.

Finally, Bruno Senna managed some timed laps in his HRT Cosworth, but he was miles off the pace in what was literally a shakedown run for the car. He had a momentary scare when the car wobbled under braking and slid off the circuit at the first corner, with replays indicating that it had shed a wheelnut. Sadly for Bruno’s team-mate Karun Chandhok, it was a day spent twiddling his thumbs as his car was not ready to leave the garage. The Indian runner will only have one hours’ practice tomorrow to shake his car down before qualifying, and is on the steepest learning curve of his life.

2010 Bahrain GP Practice 2 Session Times:

	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
1.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes GP	1:55.409	23
2.	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren Mercedes	1:55.854	22
3.	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes GP	1:55.903	23
4.	Jenson Button	McLaren Mercedes	1:56.076	28
5.	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Renault	1:56.459	18
6.	Nico Hülkenberg	Williams Cosworth	1:56.501	26
7.	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:56.555	30
8.	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	1:56.750	26
9.	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:57.140	25
10.	Pedro de la Rosa	Sauber Ferrari	1:57.255	24
11.	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber Ferrari	1:57.352	27
12.	Adrian Sutil	Force India Mercedes	1:57.361	29
13.	Rubens Barrichello	Williams Cosworth	1:57.452	21
14.	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Force India Mercedes	1:57.833	29
15.	Robert Kubica	Renault	1:58.155	29
16.	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso Ferrari	1:59.799	31
17.	Mark Webber	Red Bull Renault	2:00.444	12
18.	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus Cosworth	2:00.873	23
19.	Jarno Trulli	Lotus Cosworth	2:00.990	14
20.	Timo Glock	Virgin Racing Cosworth	2:02.037	3
21.	Lucas di Grassi	Virgin Racing Cosworth	2:02.188	21
22.	Bruno Senna	HRT Cosworth	2:06.968	17
23.	Sébastien Buemi	Toro Rosso Ferrari	no time	1
24.	Karun Chandhok	HRT Cosworth	no time