Come the conclusion, the Ferrari duo sandwiched Lotus’ Kimi Raikkonen in
second, the Finn finishing 0.152secs adrift of Brazilian Massa.
As for Mercedes, who were one-two at the end of FP1 with Nico Rosberg ahead of
Lewis Hamilton, the duo had to settle for fourth and seventh in FP2.
Both remarked of high degradation with the soft Pirelli tyres – a trend across
most cars – leaving Rosberg, who gave Mercedes their only win in three years
here last season, nearly half a second down on Massa.
As for Hamilton, who complained bitterly at one point about his tyres falling
away, the 27-year-old Briton finished 1.156secs adrift.
Splitting the Mercedes pairing were Mark Webber in his Red Bull, with the
Australian three quarters of a second off the pace, and McLaren’s Jenson
Button who was a second down.
The Woking-based marque have worked tirelessly over the past two weeks to
rectify the faults on a car that started abysmally off the pace in
Australia, and to a lesser extent in Malaysia.
Sporting a new exhaust and sidepods, along with many other bits of bodywork,
McLaren appear to be closing the gap on their rivals.
For team-mate Sergio Perez, though, both sessions were ones to forget as he
ended FP1 by breaking the front wing with a run across the gravel at the
entrance to the pit lane.
Whilst just 15 minutes into FP2 he spun his car, again through a gravel trap,
before damaging the rear wing against a tyre wall.
The Mexican eventually finished 11th quickest, just behind Red Bull’s
three-times world champion Sebastian Vettel who had Force India duo Adrian
Sutil and Paul Di Resta ahead of him in eighth and ninth.
Di Resta finished 1.255secs behind Massa, and only 0.081secs behind Sutil as
the Silverstone-based marque again appear strong.
Sadly for Marussia’s Max Chilton, the young Briton suffered an oil pressure
problem that twice ground him to a halt out on track.
Chilton had only completed four laps when the issue first appeared, and
although the team retrieved the car and got him back out, he was quickly
told to pull over again with a repeat of the concern.
Second Practice: 1 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 1min 35.340secs, 2 Kimi
Raikkonen (Fin) Lotus 1:35.492, 3 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari 1:35.755, 4
Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes 1:35.819, 5 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull 1:36.092,
6 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren 1:36.432, 7 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) Mercedes
1:36.496, 8 Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India 1:36.514, 9 Paul Di Resta (Gbr)
Force India 1:36.595, 10 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull 1:36.791, 11 Sergio
Perez (Mex) McLaren 1:36.940, 12 Romain Grosjean (Fra) Lotus 1:36.963, 13
Esteban Gutierrez (Mex) Sauber 1:37.103, 14 Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) Toro
Rosso 1:37.206, 15 Jean-Eric Vergne (Fra) Toro Rosso 1:38.127, 16 Valtteri
Bottas (Fin) Williams 1:38.185, 17 Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Sauber 1:38.211, 18
Pastor Maldonado (Ven) Williams 1:38.276, 19 Jules Bianchi (Fra) Marussia
1:38.725, 20 Giedo van der Garde (Hol) Caterham 1:39.271, 21 Charles Pic
(Fra) Caterham 1:39.814, 22 Max Chilton (Gbr) Marussia 1:43.227
Edited by Vicki Hodges