Hamilton on top again in second practice

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Vettel was second quickest but gremlins struck Red Bull again

Lewis Hamilton led the way in the second practice session at Sepang, heading the times once again in a second dry session at the Malaysian track.

Second fastest was Sebastian Vettel in the Red Bull but it was his team mate’s turn to suffer from the RB6’s poor reliability.

Once again the session saw several drivers struggling to keep their cars on the track. Both Toro Rosso drivers had moment off the track, with Jaime Alguersuari sliding wide with oversteer in between turns seven and eight.

Kamui Kobayashi and Timo Gock also had sideways moments as they got to grips with the Sepang circuit.

As in the first session the McLaren drivers headed to the top of the times after some quick runs early in the session. Hamilton set the fastest time of 1’34.175 using the soft tyres.

Red Bull’s reliability problems continued – Mark Webber pulled up early in the session and came to a halt in the turn nine gravel trap. Sebastian Vettel complained of power steering problems but was still able to set the second fastest time, 0.27s off Hamilton’s pace.

It appeared that some teams – notably Ferrari – were concentrating on high-fuel runs. Fernando Alonso ended the session seventh, Felipe Massa a lowly 15th.

Having missed the first session Vitantonio Liuzzi and Heikki Kovalainen were back in their cars. Lotus were the quickest of the new teams with Jarno Trulli one second off the next slowest car, Nico Hulkenberg’s Williams.

Pos.Car numberDriverCarBest lapLaps
12Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes1’34.17527
25Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’34.4410.26628
34Nico RosbergMercedes1’34.4430.26830
41Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’34.5380.36324
53Michael SchumacherMercedes1’34.6740.49930
611Robert KubicaRenault1’35.1480.97334
78Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’35.5811.40634
816Sebastien BuemiToro Rosso-Ferrari1’35.6601.48539
912Vitaly PetrovRenault1’35.8721.69720
1014Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes1’35.9571.78232
1123Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari1’36.0181.84338
1215Vitantonio LiuzziForce India-Mercedes1’36.2212.04634
1322Pedro de la RosaSauber-Ferrari1’36.3252.1533
1417Jaime AlguersuariToro Rosso-Ferrari1’36.3252.1539
157Felipe MassaFerrari1’36.6022.42730
169Rubens BarrichelloWilliams-Cosworth1’36.8132.63826
1710Nico HulkenbergWilliams-Cosworth1’37.4153.2419
1818Jarno TrulliLotus-Cosworth1’38.4544.27934
1919Heikki KovalainenLotus-Cosworth1’38.5304.35532
206Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’38.7864.61113
2124Timo GlockVirgin-Cosworth1’39.0614.88623
2225Lucas di GrassiVirgin-Cosworth1’39.1584.98329
2320Karun ChandhokHRT-Cosworth1’41.0846.90927
2421Bruno SennaHRT-Cosworth1’41.4817.30632

2010 Malaysian Grand Prix

    Image (C) Red Bull/Getty images

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    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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    46 comments on “Hamilton on top again in second practice”

    1. Like I’ve just said on the Blog tab…tyre wear will determine who wins tomorrow if the weather stays dry.

      Alonso and Massa dont seem to be pushin too hard, they must be doing race simulations.

      Great lap by Chandhok at the very end, almost 3 seconds quicker than his previous best, edged Senna by almost half a second.

      1. If you look at the laptime sheet, it looks like both Massa and Alonso attempted a fast lap, but simply didn’t get it done.

        The long run pace for the top drivers was more like a 1:39 to 1:40.

        Hamilton and Button did 3 short stints though. Guess they really want to improve their qualifying performance.

    2. Looks like McLaren opts for some positive feed by running on low fuel. Strange Ferrari is in the middle and what Weber is doing no idea.

      1. RE: Weber – I think his car broke?

        1. Sorry i didn’t know when i saw the times ) I thought maybe the rain during pratice but did it rain at all?

          1. no rain at all in Free practises

          2. No but it did rain in between the two practice sessions and then a big rain storm started a few minutes after FP2 ended.

            This is significant because today’s practice sessions are earlier in the day than qualifying and the race are tomorrow and on Sunday. If the rain arrives on Saturday and Sunday the same time it has on the last few days it will fall on qualifying on the race… and it won’t be light.

    3. is williams testing their version of F-duct system in sepang?

      if it true that’s mean they are the third team to use f-duct system after mclaren and sauber

    4. Jay Menon
      Ferrari is twittering:
      session finished with alonso 7th and massa 15th. There is a lot of work to do to prepare the race: we can foresee a very difficult weekend

      @ MacLeod
      Webber parked his car into the gravel and his Practice 2 was over after 13 laps.

    5. Williams are looking bad
      Petrov- next free practisde champion? Like Rosberg back in 2009

      1. I think “Cosworth” looking bad would be more accurate…..

    6. Maccas seem on the pace – Fridays difficult to make assumptions ‘tho .

    7. It was very interesting “fight” between Rosberg and Schumacher, but Nico won again. Your team mate is always your primary rival, I think, this is the biggest psychologic war on the grid, though it seems like everything is under control in Mercedes.

    8. I saw something resembling the f-duct on Renault.

    9. Why not a few words about Petrov?

      1. And why should there be?

        1. There was a nice moment in Fp1 near the beginning when Petrov went quickest and his manager etc were clapping. That made me smile

    10. Chandhok beat Senna again. Senna became vice-cahamp in gp2 in his first year, meanwhile Chandhok was at the end of the grid for 4 years. Looks like gp2 is not the best indicator of drivers’ real skills.

      1. Yeah same to Groesjean and Kobayashi

      2. “Looks like gp2 is not the best indicator of drivers’ real skills.”
        – No. It looks like F1 is not a good indicatior of drivers’ real skills.
        After all, it is GP2 where everybody race on the same car, right?

        Perhaps Chandhok has better engineers/has better communication with his engineers or the car suits his driving style better, whereas they can’t yet adjust the car to suit Senna’s driving style.

      3. He’s not a patch on is uncle i surpose we got to give him time whether he’s a future 3 time champ remains to been seen

        1. Hopefully he won’t be a flop like another relative of a Brazilian 3 time champ…

    11. Red Bull’s reliability is very annoying. Looks like it’ll be a long time into this year before Vettel will be able to get the result he deserves.

      1. why annoying :) this is funny! they put all design power to performance and forgot about reliability.
        LOL

    12. better to wait until tommorow to get a better idea of the fastest driver, since Hamilton has had numerous top times in practice but does a sub par job in qualifying.

      I can see schumacher getting the boot this year and being replaced by vettel in the 2011 season, since 1 driver is not performing and the other is performing but his car isn’t regardless of contracts being signed since there is always an escape rope to get out of it.

      The team don’t really focus 100% on the flaws they always seem to get, because it looks like it’s happening more often now then usual, or are we just getting more picky now keith now that 2009 is repeating?

      1. I dont see why Vettel would have any reason to go to Mercedes, he’s pretty well placed where he is at Red Bull..

        1. Schumacher will appear in some moment. Wait and see.

        2. 50 points in hand instead he gets 12 points because Red Bull arn’t getting their act together and sorting it.

          Even now other problems are coming up, what was the point of keeping the car out of the 1st test run of the season just to do more “aero checks” if the car is falling apart every race so far?. They are looking worse then last year if it wasn’t for the RB6 pace for the first 2 races.

          You look at the other teams on the grid and barely anything happens to their cars, even HRT and Virgin have had less problems then Red Bull(maybe because they can’t go fast enough to cause a problem?),and that is a reason for thought if anything for vettel but that’s just me I’m not vettel, so maybe I should do the same and just see what happens in the next 17 races…..

          But if it isn’t Red Bulls’ fault it’s Renaults fault, If it’s not Renaults fault it’s Red Bull’s fault. How can vettel go to each grand prix with 100% confidence knowing his car just won’t blow up within the first few laps.

          I think Vettel would become well placed in Mercedes when the time comes because he is that kind of guy that gets along with anybody who works just as hard as he does.

          1. And did you think that if its not RB neither Renault fault it may be vettels fault? :)

            Its sure thing that theres something wrong. I bet it is very poor reliability or just car hates vettel :) I dont believe that this is only vettels bad luck

          2. Rosberg has only 20 points and that’s really the absolute maximum he could achieve with that car.

            Rosberg realisticly doesn’t stand a chance to win the WDC this year while Vettel is driving the fastest car (especially in the almost all important Q3 session)

            Only if Mercedes pull a new car out of the hat that is suddenly faster than the Red Bull would they be able to challenge. How likely is that though?

            Besides, people rate a driver who wins a race once in a while but never finishes otherwise a lot higher than one who always finishes but never on top.

            Webber scored more points than Vettel during 2009 for the first 12 or 13 races. Yet vettel was constantly heralded the big next champ. Webber lost out that year mostly because in the end he had 3 extra non-scoring finishes which weren’t really his fault.

          3. But if it isn’t Red Bulls’ fault it’s Renaults fault, If it’s not Renaults fault it’s Red Bull’s fault. How can vettel go to each grand prix with 100% confidence knowing his car just won’t blow up within the first few laps.

            How can Webber NOT break all the time, yet Vettel does? Same story last season. I think the problem is not RBR or Renault, and I think perhaps young Vettel needs a mirror to suss out his breakage problems. It’s all well and good to go fast, but if your foot is so full of lead that it breaks the engine and brakes, then what good comes?

            I seem to recall Vettel breaking motors left and right in 2009. Now Vettel is breaking other parts of the car. Renault has obviously built a better engine this year. [evil grin]

    13. How BORING is the guy who narrates the BBC practice highlights???
      http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/8600399.stm

      1. i have to say just one word: LOL :D

      2. I thought he was drunk or something?

      3. bernification
        2nd April 2010, 16:44

        He sounds deranged!

      4. I need a VPN to see this…could someone recon.,a free Brit. one? A USA one doesn’t work

        1. You’re not missing much, seriously. At first it sounded like the guy was reading from a script. It’s the fact he’s pretty much reading in a monotone, starting fast and getting slower with his delivery until the end that made me think he was drafted in at the last minute and was half cut from the night before!

      5. I can’t believe he has been given the job of commentating. Doesn’t anyone at the BBC actually listen to this before posting it on the internet? Do they not have the same hearing as the general public? I am so disappointed with the BBC in general – Legard is useless, the anti-Lewis, pro-Button bias at the last GP was atrocious (and has sparked many complaints and comments on F1 forums) – I really pine for the ITV days.

    14. I think tyre wear will be a big issue this weekend. We heard on the BBC that teams were having problems with it up and down the pitlane. We saw shots of JB’s left rear heavily degregated, even with his smooth driving style.

      I think this will be a problem in the wet as well because apparently the inters go off very quickly so it will be interesting to see who copes best.

      1. When it rains it pours there so maybe full wets will be used more.
        Another problem with inters too is that once it rains again after it dries a bit they’re meant to be a pain then too

      2. No every other team is doing fine for tires. Mclaren have a new Z-Duct system under the car which forces air through the car like the magic bullet that killed Kennedy… this is having an adverse effect on tire wear for Mclaren which when reached for comment said they “have a new J-Duct system that should solve the left rear tire wear for the next race.”
        As we all know, the J-Duct works in conjunction with the flow of air specifically over the left side of the car.

    15. What’s this about 18inch wheels comming to F1. Sounds good more rubber so better wair, better mechanical grip. But missed by the comentators was there is more room for bigger brakes inside those wheels.

    16. I like the comparison in times between the lower 3 teams and the lowest legitimate team! Ha ha ha. I’m sure that the Lotus was on fumes when they set their best time, while I feel it highly likely Williams were not focusing on quali runs.

      Some of you mentioned but I thought I’d clarify… Several teams have some for of duct/stall system now, Renault, Sauber and now Mercedes has some small gap just behind their front suspension that may be a duct as well. Ferrari probably has one as well but its invisible!

    17. Ferrari also had quality problems before and around the time, when Michael came to the team. Then they really concentrated on quality in all aspects. After a few years the number of DNF’s dropped accordingly. I think Red Bull needs to go through this process – I would have expected them to have started this work already, but apparently not. They really need to concentrate on quality in production, mounting, check etc. etc. Webbers car lasted the whole race in AUS. Vettels car suffered a lost torsion rod in the front suspension, without any kind of contact with other cars – could be caused by poor quality of the mountings or poor quality in workmanship of the mechanics and lack of control of this quality.
      Difficult for a young driver to turn a culture of “good enough” with Redbulls mechanics and/or responsible for choice of materials, bolts, nuts, mounting and locking devices etc. – If this is the problem?
      And of course Mercedes will keep Michael for all 3 years, his skills in feedback and ideas to further develop a car will still be there, even if he don’t succeed in becomming the fastest driver in the team.

      1. So I can say the same. Some interesting facts http://www.twitter.com/f1latvija

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