Shanghai Practice 2: Hamilton reclaims top spot at the end of day one

Lewis Hamilton tops in FP2

Lewis Hamilton returned Mercedes to the top of the timesheets on Friday by setting the fastest time in the second practice session for the Chinese Grand Prix.
Hamilton completed 25 laps of the 5.4 kilometre Shanghai International Circuit in the afternoon to end the day with a best time of 1:38.315.
His Formula One championship leading team mate Nico Rosberg was third, the German lapping four tenths of a second slower than Hamilton’s benchmark on a cool and hazy afternoon at the circuit located on the outskirts of Shanghai.
Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, who had topped the weekend’s opening session, split the two Mercedes in second.

The Spaniard, watched by the team’s new boss Marco Mattiacci, carried his timesheet-topping form from the morning session over into the afternoon.

Fernando Alonso

Alonso’s best lap was just a tenth off Hamilton’s benchmark effort, and the double world champion was swapping the fastest time with Rosberg’s Mercedes for most of the second 90-minute session before the focus switched to high-fuel long runs.
Despite ending the day fastest, it was far from a trouble-free day for Hamilton.
The 2008 world champion, gunning for his first hat-trick of wins this weekend, completed just nine laps and set the eighth fastest time in the morning session after a suspension problem limited his running.
The issue persisted into the afternoon and Hamilton was forced to sit out the opening 30 minutes of the second session as his team worked to fix the problem.
However, despite being sent out to join the on-track action, the Briton didn’t seem comfortable in his car and radioed his team to complain about its handling.

Nico Rosberg

Kimi Raikkonen was another driver whose Friday running was hampered by technical glitches. The Ferrari driver was forced to sit out the first session but managed to rack up 25 laps in the afternoon on his way to the seventh-fastest time.
Daniel Ricciardo, who had set the third fastest time in the morning, continued to lead the charge for reigning world champions Red Bull, ending the day fourth-fastest ahead of team-mate Sebastian Vettel.
Lotus driver Pastor Maldonado, who had caused some amusement when he drove off the track and spun while changing some settings on his steering wheel on Friday morning, was the only casualty in the second session.
The Venezuelan, who carries a five-place grid penalty into Sunday’s race, ran wide while turning into the pits and drove into a tyre barrier, bringing an end to his session after just 12 laps.

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:38.315		25
2	14	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:38.456	0.141	28
3	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:38.726	0.411	30
4	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:38.811	0.496	30
5	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:39.015	0.700	31
6	19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	1:39.118	0.803	25
7	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:39.283	0.968	25
8	22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:39.491	1.176	29
9	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	1:39.537	1.222	36
10	26	Daniil Kvyat	STR-Renault	1:39.648	1.333	26
11	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1:39.736	1.421	30
12	20	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:39.744	1.429	29
13	25	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR-Renault	1:39.759	1.444	28
14	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	1:39.830	1.515	25
15	11	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	1:40.124	1.809	32
16	21	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber-Ferrari	1:40.359	2.044	32
17	99	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari	1:40.395	2.080	30
18	13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault	1:40.455	2.140	12
19	17	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Ferrari	1:42.327	4.012	27
20	4	Max Chilton	Marussia-Ferrari	1:43.473	5.158	30
21	10	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham-Renault	1:43.530	5.215	32
22	9	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham-Renault	1:43.679	5.364	32