» 2012 European GP: Vettel fastest in FP2

Sebastian Vettel has claimed top spot on the timesheets at the end of the opening day’s running for this year’s European Grand Prix at Valencia. The German narrowly edged out compatriot Nico Hülkenberg for top honours, with the Force India driver showing promising pace for the Silverstone team this weekend.

Despite predictions of sunnier conditions than the morning session, conditions remained partly cloudy, although the strong Mediterranean winds were bringing little respite in the warm conditions.

Again, many drivers struggled to get a decent balance in the braking and traction zones and, as was the case in the first practice session, a number of drivers outbraked themselves into Turn 12, skipping through the run-off without incident.

Sergio Pérez had a rather more adventurous moment at the same corner, getting his Sauber very sideways under braking before gently pirouetting into the run-off and rejoining the action.

A few minutes later and the yellow flags were out once again, this time when local driver Pedro de la Rosa crashed his HRTF1 at Turn 14 in a rather bizarre-looking accident. The Spaniard seemed to be performing a slow lap, making his slide into the tyre wall all the more unusual. The left side of his F112 was badly damaged, ruling him out of any further action in the session.

There was more drama later on when Romain Grosjean and Michael Schumacher nearly collided at Turn 12.

The Frenchman attempted to pass Schumacher down the inside of the corner, but completely missed his braking point and locked up. But for some good avoiding action from Schumacher, it would have been a big accident.

Grosjean and Schumacher had this near-miss

Schumacher was experiencing his own dramas in the session, firstly losing time in the opening minutes while his mechanics set about setting his gear ratios for the session. Later on, he lost more track time with an issue in the drivetrain. Fourth-fastest at the end of the session was a pretty good result, all things considered.

Bruno Senna ended the session fifth-fastest in his first outing here in the Williams, just pipping Paul di Resta and Fernando Alonso for the position.

Grosjean, Mark Webber and Nico Rosberg rounded out the top-ten, with Rosberg being the only driver to post his quickest lap time on the medium-compound tyres.

Neither McLaren made it into the top-ten on the timesheets, with both Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton preferring to concentrate on longer runs in this session.

The order on the timesheets was considerably different to that seen in the opening session, and with the fastest fifteen drivers covered by less than a second on the stopwatch, Saturday’s final practice session could prove very telling as to who has genuine pace here.

2012 European Formula 1 Grand Prix – Free Practice 2 Session Times:

	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1.	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing Renault RB8	1:39.334		33
2.	Nico Hülkenberg	Force India Mercedes VJM05	1:39.465	+ 0.131	32
3.	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber Ferrari C31	1:39.595	+ 0.261	20
4.	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes AMG F1 W03	1:39.601	+ 0.267	27
5.	Bruno Senna	Williams Renault FW34	1:39.644	+ 0.310	34
6.	Paul di Resta	Force India Mercedes VJM05	1:39.700	+ 0.366	32
7.	Fernando Alonso	Scuderia Ferrari F2012	1:39.733	+ 0.399	34
8.	Romain Grosjean	Lotus F1 Renault E20	1:39.868	+ 0.534	33
9.	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing Renault RB8	1:39.901	+ 0.567	30
10.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes AMG F1 W03	1:39.926	+ 0.592	32
11.	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus F1 Renault E20	1:39.945	+ 0.611	34
12.	Jenson Button	McLaren Mercedes MP4-27	1:39.990	+ 0.656	33
13.	Pastor Maldonado	Williams Renault FW34	1:40.075	+ 0.741	29
14.	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren Mercedes MP4-27	1:40.147	+ 0.813	25
15.	Felipe Massa	Scuderia Ferrari F2012	1:40.244	+ 0.910	35
16.	Sergio Pérez	Sauber Ferrari C31	1:40.511	+ 1.177	29
17.	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham Renault CT01	1:40.963	+ 1.629	20
18.	Daniel Ricciardo	Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari STR7	1:41.121	+ 1.787	32
19.	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham Renault CT01	1:41.197	+ 1.863	38
20.	Jean-Éric Vergne	Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari STR7	1:41.263	+ 1.929	29
21.	Timo Glock	Marussia Racing Cosworth MR01	1:42.424	+ 3.090	21
22.	Charles Pic	Marussia Racing Cosworth MR01	1:42.958	+ 3.624	30
23.	Narain Karthikeyan	HRTF1 Cosworth F112	1:44.201	+ 4.867	33
24.	Pedro de la Rosa	HRTF1 Cosworth F112	1:44.260	+ 4.926	12