Just four other drivers finished within a second of Vettel, who is on course
to win his third successive title, a feat only achieved previously by Juan
Manuel Fangio and Michael Schumacher.
Nico Rosberg in his Mercedes was 0.801secs down, followed by Lotus’ Kimi
Raikkonen, the Finn a further eight-thousandths of a second behind.
As for McLaren, who have only managed to get both cars home in two of the last
seven races to wreck their drivers’ title bid and undermine their hopes of a
long-overdue constructors’ crown, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button were left
trailing.
Hamilton finished 0.910secs down and Button 0.961secs adrift, with their form
of just a few races ago when they had the advantage in Belgium, Italy and
Singapore having disappeared.
Behind the leading players, Nico Hulkenberg in his Force India was the best of
the rest in eighth place, three places and seven-tenths of a second quicker
than team-mate Paul Di Resta.
Sandwiched in between the duo were Romain Grosjean in his Lotus and the
Williams of Bruno Senna, the Brazilian faster than team-mate Pastor
Maldonado by 0.8secs even after missing out on FP1 to again make way for
reserve Valtteri Bottas.
After also missing the first session due to a cold, Sauber driver Sergio Perez
returned for FP2 to finish 12th, two seconds behind Vettel, but ahead of
team-mate Kamui Kobayashi in 16th.
Bringing up the rear was Charles Pic for Marussia. The Frenchman was 5.272secs
behind Vettel.
Second practice:
1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault 1min 26.221secs
2 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault 1:26.339
3 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari 1:26.820
4 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes GP 1:27.022
5 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Lotus-Renault 1:27.030
6 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes 1:27.131
7 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes 1:27.182
8 Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Force India-Mercedes 1:27.233
9 Romain Grosjean (Fra) Lotus-Renault 1:27.397
10 Bruno Senna (Bra) Williams-Renault 1:27.738
11 Paul Di Resta (Gbr) Force India-Mercedes 1:28.004
12 Sergio Perez (Mex) Sauber 1:28.178
13 Michael Schumacher (Ger) Mercedes GP 1:28.222
14 Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:28.239
15 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 1:28.296
16 Kamui Kobayashi (Jpn) Sauber 1:28.455
17 Pastor Maldonado (Ven) Williams-Renault 1:28.596
18 Jean-Eric Vergne (Fra) Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:29.167
19 Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) Caterham-Renault 1:29.320
20 Vitaly Petrov (Rus) Caterham-Renault 1:29.606
21 Pedro de la Rosa (Spa) HRT-Cosworth 1:30.950
22 Timo Glock (Ger) Marussia-Cosworth 1:31.113
23 Narain Karthikeyan (Ind) HRT-Cosworth 1:31.372
24 Charles Pic (Fra) Marussia-Cosworth 1:31.493