Mercedes duo Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg improved to sixth and seventh,
the former chalking up a day-high total – and a race distance – of 70 laps.
That was primarily due to Mercedes coming into this race on the backfoot after
being banned for last week’s young driver test at Silverstone, where
Pirelli’s new range of tyres were initially tried.
Following a series of blowouts during the British Grand Prix last month,
Pirelli were rapidly forced to revise their tyres, opting for a solution
that comprises last year’s structure with this year’s compounds.
For Hamilton and Rosberg, the two sessions have been all about obtaining as
much information as possible ahead of qualifying and the race.
At present, the team’s run of six pole positions in the last seven races
appears under threat by Red Bull and Vettel, who has won two of the previous
three grands prix to open up his advantage over Alonso, with Raikkonen 41
points adrift.
Hamilton finished just over half a second down on Vettel, with Rosberg
0.727secs back, while McLaren’s Jenson Button and Adrian Sutil in his Force
India – on the occasion of his 100th grands prix – completed the top 10
behind Raikkonen.
Paul Di Resta, who struggled in session one with set up and found himself
1.5secs behind team-mate Sutil, at least improved in FP2, moving up to 11th
on the timesheet and 0.222secs down on the German.
Marussia’s Max Chilton, who sat out the morning run in favour of reserve
Rodolfo Gonzalez, was slowest of all, 5.383secs behind Vettel, and more
importantly 1.5secs down on team-mate Jules Bianchi.
Second practice times:
1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull 1min 21.264secs
2 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull 1:21.308
3 Romain Grosjean (Fra) Lotus 1:21.417
4 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari 1:21.426
5 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 1:21.544
6 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) Mercedes 1:21.802
7 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes 1:21.991
8 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Lotus 1:22.011
9 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren 1:22.180
10 Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India 1:22.304
11 Paul Di Resta (Gbr) Force India 1:22.526
12 Sergio Perez (Mex) McLaren 1:22.529
13 Pastor Maldonado (Ven) Williams 1:22.781
14 Esteban Gutierrez (Mex) Sauber 1:22.837
15 Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Sauber 1:22.841
16 Jean-Eric Vergne (Fra) Toro Rosso 1:23.369
17 Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) Toro Rosso 1:23.411
18 Valtteri Bottas (Fin) Williams 1:23.646
19 Charles Pic (Fra) Caterham 1:24.325
20 Giedo van der Garde (Ned) Caterham 1:25.065
21 Jules Bianchi (Fra) Marussia 1:25.143
22 Max Chilton (Gbr) Marussia 1:26.647
(Edited by Giles Mole)