» Hamilton bounces back in FP2

Lewis Hamilton has bounced back from his technical dramas in the opening practice to end Friday’s running of the Malaysian Grand Prix on top of the timesheets in the afternoon practice session.

The Englishman finished ahead of Ferrari’s Kimi Räikkönen, who split Hamilton and his Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg on the stopwatch.

With his mechanics having identified his FP1 stoppage being due to a failure on his Mercedes power unit inlet system, they set about quickly turning his F1W06 around so he could get back out on track.

Incredibly, he was exiting the pit lane halfway through the 90-minute session, and hurriedly set about completing a condensed programme of running on the Pirelli Hard and Medium tyre compounds. Running the Medium tyres later than many of his rivals, Hamilton clocked a 1:39.790 to snatch top spot from Räikkönen by 0.373 seconds.

Daniil Kvyat took his Red Bull Racing RB11 to the fourth-fastest time, finishing just ahead of the Williams duo of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa, who were split by one-tenth of a second in their FW37s.

Sebastian Vettel was seventh-fastest in the second Ferrari, although he failed to find a clear lap when running on the Medium tyres. His first flying lap was ruined by Roberto Merhi spinning his Manor Marussia off at Turn 11 and causing a red flag, before he too lost control at the same corner at his next attempt.

The top-ten was completed by Toro Rosso rookie Max Verstappen, who finished up just ahead of Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson and Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo – the Australian having been delayed by unspecified technical issues.

Pastor Maldonado survived a disruption caused by a piece of his Lotus’ bodywork parting company to finish just outside the top-ten; Felipe Nasr took over from reserve driver Raffaele Marciello to finish twelfth-fastest.

The Force India duo of Sergio Pérez and Nico Hülkenberg sandwiched Toro Rosso rookie Carlos Sainz Jr., who finished well down the order after his FP1 heroics. The Spaniard was a second off his teammate Verstappen’s pace.

McLaren’s pairing of Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button clocked up almost 50 laps at the wheel of their MP4-30, but were over three seconds off the ultimate pace Hamilton had set.

Romain Grosjean finished further adrift in the second Lotus, suffering a loss of power after just seven laps’ running which brought his session to a close.

The two Manor Marussias brought up the rear and were further adrift of the slow McLarens. Will Stevens lapped within six seconds of Hamilton’s best lap, while Merhi was a further 1.4 seconds adrift, losing an hour of his session with his error. Importantly, Stevens’ best lap was within 107% of the fastest time of the session, meaning the Englishman would theoretically be given dispensation to start the race should he fail to post a competitive enough qualifying time on Saturday afternoon.

Saturday’s final practice session at the Sepang International Circuit begins at 14:00 local time (GMT +8).

2015 Formula 1 Petronas Malaysia Grand Prix – Free Practice 2 Results
Pos	Driver	Team / Entry	Time	Gap	Laps
1.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1W06 Hybrid	1:39.790		16
2.	Kimi Raikkonen	Scuderia Ferrari SF15-T	1:40.163	+ 0.373	29
3.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1W06 Hybrid	1:40.218	+ 0.428	26
4.	Daniil Kvyat	Infiniti Red Bull Racing Renault RB11	1:40.346	+ 0.556	17
5.	Valtteri Bottas	Williams Martini Racing Mercedes FW37	1:40.450	+ 0.660	31
6.	Felipe Massa	Williams Martini Racing Mercedes FW37	1:40.560	+ 0.770	27
7.	Sebastian Vettel	Scuderia Ferrari SF15-T	1:40.652	+ 0.862	29
8.	Max Verstappen	Scuderia Toro Rosso Renault STR10	1:41.220	+ 1.430	30
9.	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber F1 Team Ferrari C34	1:41.261	+ 1.471	30
10.	Daniel Ricciardo	Infiniti Red Bull Racing Renault RB11	1:41.799	+ 2.009	8
11.	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus F1 Team Mercedes Ere Hybrid	1:41.877	+ 2.087	15
12.	Felipe Nasr	Sauber F1 Team Ferrari C34	1:41.988	+ 2.198	30
13.	Sergio Perez	Sahara Force India Mercedes VJM08	1:42.242	+ 2.452	24
14.	Carlos Sainz	Scuderia Toro Rosso Renault STR10	1:42.291	+ 2.501	31
15.	Nico Hulkenberg	Sahara Force India Mercedes VJM08	1:42.330	+ 2.540	28
16.	Fernando Alonso	McLaren Honda MP4-30	1:42.506	+ 2.716	25
17.	Jenson Button	McLaren Honda MP4-30	1:42.637	+ 2.847	24
18.	Romain Grosjean	Lotus F1 Team Mercedes Ere Hybrid	1:42.948	+ 3.158	7
19.	Will Stevens	Manor Marussia F1 Team Ferrari MR03	1:45.704	+ 5.914	12
20.	Roberto Merhi	Manor Marussia F1 Team Ferrari MR03	1:47.229	+ 7.439	6