McLarens close on Vettel in Practice 2

While Sebastian Vettel was again the man to chase in Practice 2 in Shanghai, the German topped the session by a much reduced margin compared to his morning efforts.

Having been more than two seconds adrift of Vettel in Practice 1, McLaren team-mates Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button closed to within 0.3s of the reigning World Champion to take second and third respectively.

Four Mercedes powered cars ended the 90 minutes in the top five, with factory drivers Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher showing signs of improvement in their W02s.

Fernando Alonso was again outside the top 10, having lost considerable time with a hydraulic problem.

Mark Webber was 10th fastest after completing 33 laps, with his best effort 1.6s adrift of Vettel’s.

The third and final practice session will be held tomorrow ahead of qualifying.

See below for the Practice 2 result

1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	1m37.688s
2	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1m37.854s	0.166
3	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1m37.935s	0.247
4	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1m37.943s	0.255
5	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	1m38.105s	0.417
6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1m38.507s	0.819
7	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1m38.735s	1.047
8	Nick Heidfeld	Renault	1m38.805s	1.117
9	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	1m38.859s	1.171
10	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1m39.327s	1.639
11	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	1m39.538s	1.850
12	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Cosworth	1m39.667s	1.979
13	Sebastien Buemi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1m39.771s	2.083
14	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1m39.779s	2.091
15	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1m39.828s	2.140
16	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	1m39.925s	2.237
17	Sergio Perez	Sauber-Ferrari	1m39.953s	2.265
18	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Renault	1m40.476s	2.788
19	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Renault	1m41.482s	3.794
20	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT-Cosworth	1m42.902s	5.214
21	Tonio Liuzzi	HRT-Cosworth	1m43.850s	6.162
22	Jerome D’Ambrosio	Virgin-Cosworth	1m44.008s	6.320
23	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	1m44.747s	7.059