Vettel finished with a lap of one minute 46.374secs, still a second off
Fernando Alonso’s pole position time of last season.
The Spaniard had to settle for second quickest, 0.201 secs adrift of the
24-year-old German, a scenario which if mirrored in the race would ensure
the championship spills over into Japan.
The duo finished comfortably clear of Hamilton, who struggled with his
settings early on before finally getting up to speed, albeit finishing three
quarters of a second behind Vettel.
Felipe Massa was just 0.005secs behind the Briton, with Mark Webber in his Red
Bull fifth quickest, almost a second down on his team- mate.
The Australian at least kept his nose clean in FP2, unlike in FP1 when he had
it clipped by the Virgin of Timo Glock as he tried to squeeze into a gap
that was not there.
As for the remainder of the field, they were a long way adrift in F1 terms,
with Michael Schumacher sixth in his Mercedes, albeit a remarkable two
seconds down.
Force India’s Adrian Sutil looks set for a top-10 grid slot at this early
stage, with the Saubers of Sergio Perez and Kamui Kobayashi in close
attendance.
As for Jenson Button, his session lasted just 40 minutes as the 31-year-old
made a rare error in his McLaren, overshooting turn 14 and leaving himself
with nowhere to go as he faced a barrier.
Asked to select reverse over the team radio, Button’s reply was a terse one as
he simply stated ”Not working!”
The frustrated Briton, who ultimately finished 10th and 3.377secs off Vettel,
was left to clamber out of his car and make his way back to the garage on
the back of a moped.
Just a day after remarking McLaren had made too many errors this year to be
serious title contenders, this was another that leaves him on the back foot
going into qualifying.
After the limited running in FP1, the last thing Paul di Resta wanted was to
encounter a severe brake issue in the second session that restricted him to
just nine laps in his Force India.
The team at least managed to get him on track just before the end to set a hot
lap on the supersoft tyres, propelling his way up to 13th, but four seconds
down.