» Chinese GP 2nd Practice: Hamilton keeps McLaren on top

Lewis Hamilton has continued McLaren’s pacesetting form at the Chinese Grand Prix by heading the timesheets at the end of the second free practice session for the Chinese Grand Prix.

It was an all-Mercedes top-four on the timesheets, with McLaren and Mercedes GP taking the honours. Hamilton’s fastest time came halfway through the session, and Nico Rosberg set his quickest time in the closing minutes, he was unable to overhaul Hamilton for top honours.

With the first practice session proving particularly adventure-packed by dint of Fernando Alonso’s engine failure and Sébastien Buemi’s lurid accident by dint of a front suspension failure, the teams and drivers were hoping for a less chaotic session this time around.

For Buemi, however, his session would be spent with his Toro Rosso STR5 confined to the garage while the team sought to diagnose and repair the issue.

The teams’ wishes for a less-fraught session appeared to be granted: with just one car (Heikki Kovalainen, oil leak) grinding to a halt on track, while Vitaly Petrov spun his Renault at Turn 7 but was able to continue. Vitantonio Liuzzi also had a spin in his first outing for Force India at the circuit, replacing ‘Man Friday’ Paul di Resta, who participated in the morning’s practice session.

2010 Chinese GP Practice 2 Session Times:

	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
1.	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren Mercedes	1:35.217	26
2.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes GP	+ 0.248	22
3.	Jenson Button	McLaren Mercedes	+ 0.376	26
4.	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes GP	+ 0.385	28
5.	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Renault	+ 0.574	30
6.	Mark Webber	Red Bull Renault	+ 0.778	29
7.	Adrian Sutil	Force India Mercedes	+ 1.037	31
8.	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso Ferrari	+ 1.160	43
9.	Robert Kubica	Renault	+ 1.172	29
10.	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	+ 1.387	33
11.	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	+ 1.727	36
12.	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	+ 1.769	27
13.	Pedro de la Rosa	Sauber Ferrari	+ 2.204	32
14.	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber Ferrari	+ 2.214	33
15.	Rubens Barrichello	Williams Cosworth	+ 2.440	30
16.	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Force India Mercedes	+ 2.587	31
17.	Nico Hülkenberg	Williams Cosworth	+ 2.650	29
18.	Jarno Trulli	Lotus Cosworth	+ 4.407	35
19.	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus Cosworth	+ 4.730	30
20.	Timo Glock	Virgin Racing Cosworth	+ 5.016	27
21.	Karun Chandhok	HRT Cosworth	+ 5.791	32
22.	Lucas di Grassi	Virgin Racing Cosworth	+ 5.890	28
23.	Bruno Senna	HRT Cosworth	+ 6.128	32
24.	Sébastien Buemi	Toro Rosso Ferrari	no time