» Ferrari gain on Mercedes as Hamilton tops FP2

Lewis Hamilton has topped the second practice time sheets less than half a second ahead of Kimi Räikkönen and Daniel Ricciardo.

The session began similarly to FP1, where there was an early spin this time by Sebastian Vettel, and Nico Rosberg setting the pace.

Räikkönen was experiencing trouble with his brakes which saw him pit for the team to make the required adjustments. Then 30 minutes into the session he put on the soft compound tyre and went fastest by 1.3 seconds over Rosberg.

Räikkönen wasn’t the only driver to suffer brake problems, as Felipe Massa and Daniil Kvyat both had their session cut short. Massa was on a flying lap heading towards the Turn 14 hairpin when his rear brakes locked, sending him sideways where his nose touched the wall causing minor damage and bringing out the red flag.

Kvyat was leaving the pit box when his left rear brake overheated and caught fire, the team became aware of the issue and told him to nurse the car back to the garage. On his way down the back straight his brakes failed completely, sending him onto the run-off area and into the wall.

Shortly after Räikkönen went fastest on his new set of soft tyres, Hamilton did the same and relegated him to second; only he was 0.44 seconds faster than Räikkönen in the Ferrari, when in FP1 he was at least a second quicker.

Judging by the long runs, it seems as though Ferrari’s win in China wasn’t a complete fluke.

Both Räikkönen and Vettel were posting competitive times to the Mercedes pair and generally only two or three tenths of a second behind. What stood out was Vettel’s lap of 1:43.525 on tyres that were 21 laps old, when the Mercedes was averaging lap times in the low 1m43s.

Red Bull Racing chose not to run in the first half an hour of the session to save engine miles. During this time they altered their aero setup in an attempt to gain speed lost on the back straight. Ricciardo’s long run times were not far off Ferraris, so we should see them higher up in the top-ten on Sunday.

McLaren look to have made progress with Jenson Button two seconds off Hamilton’s benchmark in tenth, and Fernando Alonso half a second behind in twelfth.

2015 Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix – Free Practice 2 Results
Pos	Driver	Team / Entry	Time	Gap	Laps
1.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1W06 Hybrid	1:37.219		32
2.	Kimi Räikkönen	Scuderia Ferrari SF15-T	1:37.662	+ 0.443	35
3.	Daniel Ricciardo	Infiniti Red Bull Racing Renault RB11	1:38.311	+ 1.092	24
4.	Sebastian Vettel	Scuderia Ferrari SF15-T	1:38.339	+ 1.120	30
5.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1W06 Hybrid	1:38.399	+ 1.180	35
6.	Daniil Kvyat	Infiniti Red Bull Racing Renault RB11	1:38.737	+ 1.518	10
7.	Valtteri Bottas	Williams Martini Racing Mercedes FW37	1:38.850	+ 1.631	27
8.	Felipe Nasr	Sauber F1 Team Ferrari C34	1:39.032	+ 1.813	26
9.	Romain Grosjean	Lotus F1 Team Mercedes E23 Hybrid	1:39.142	+ 1.923	32
10.	Jenson Button	McLaren Honda MP4-30	1:39.275	+ 2.056	29
11.	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus F1 Team Mercedes E23 Hybrid	1:39.444	+ 2.225	30
12.	Fernando Alonso	McLaren Honda MP4-30	1:39.743	+ 2.524	27
13.	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber F1 Team Ferrari C34	1:39.751	+ 2.532	33
14.	Max Verstappen	Scuderia Toro Rosso Renault STR10	1:39.894	+ 2.675	32
15.	Carlos Sainz	Scuderia Toro Rosso Renault STR10	1:39.971	+ 2.752	28
16.	Nico Hülkenberg	Sahara Force India Mercedes VJM08	1:40.151	+ 2.932	28
17.	Felipe Massa	Williams Martini Racing Mercedes FW37	1:40.423	+ 3.204	7
18.	Sergio Pérez	Sahara Force India Mercedes VJM08	1:40.868	+ 3.649	24
19.	Roberto Merhi	Manor Marussia F1 Team Ferrari MR03	1:42.973	+ 5.754	27
20.	Will Stevens	Manor Marussia F1 Team Ferrari MR03	1:44.564	+ 7.345	8