As for championship leader Alonso, the Spaniard could do nothing as he slid
off the track and on to the grass, his brakes of no use on such a wet
surface, hitting a barrier and losing his front wing.
At the top of the time sheet it was Hamilton who led the way in his McLaren,
but with times relatively meaningless given the conditions, even for a
Friday.
The 27-year-old, who won by 68.5 seconds four years ago for arguably the
greatest victory of his Formula One career, posted a time of one minute
56.345 secs.
Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi, who completed the most laps early on with 19, also
posted an afternoon-high of 16, with his best 0.129 secs within Hamilton.
Seven-times champion Michael Schumacher, renowned for his skills in the rain
over the years, was exactly two tenths of a second behind Hamilton, whilst
team-mate Nico Rosberg was 0.222 secs off the pace.
Sauber’s Sergio Perez was the best of the rest, but almost a further second
down, followed by Jenson Button in his McLaren, the 32-year-old 1.603 secs
behind his team-mate.
The remainder were over two seconds off, led by Heikki Kovalainen in his
Caterham and Lotus’ Kimi Raikkonen.
As for Alonso, he was 10th, with Force India’s Paul di Resta 11th, but three
seconds adrift, with reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel narrowly
behind in 13th, whilst Senna was 17th.
Lotus’ Romain Grosjean and Daniel Ricciardo in his Toro Rosso, one and two in
the first session, opted not to set a time in FP2, along with Red Bull’s
Mark Webber and Pedro de la Rosa for HRT.