Lewis Hamilton has completed a promising opening day of running for McLaren in Sepang by topping the second practice session.
Hamilton used the medium compound tyres to stop the clocks at 1:38.17s.
Michael Schumacher was 0.36s adrift in second, while Jenson Button and Nico Rosberg completed a Mercedes sweep of the top four positions.
Button managed to complete a total of 29 laps during the session – one more than his team-mate – despite being delayed by a brake issue.
Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo performed strongly in fifth, while his countryman Mark Webber was just two places further back in seventh.
Paul di Resta endured two major offs during the session, the first of which was triggered by a brake problem.
Felipe Massa meanwhile continued to struggle with the F2012 Ferrari. The Brazilian was just 16th fastest, some 1.3s adrift of his team-mate.
It was a productive afternoon for backmarker squads Marussia and HRT, with Timo Glock out-pacing the Caterham of Heikki Kovalainen, and both HRT’s lapping clearly inside the 107% qualifying cut-off.
A third and final practice session will be held tomorrow prior to qualifying.
See below for the full Practice 2 times
| 1 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:38.172 | |
| 2 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 1:38.533 | 0.361 |
| 3 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:38.535 | 0.363 |
| 4 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:38.696 | 0.524 |
| 5 | Daniel Ricciardo | STR-Ferrari | 1:38.853 | 0.681 |
| 6 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1:38.891 | 0.719 |
| 7 | Mark Webber | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 1:39.133 | 0.961 |
| 8 | Jean-Eric Vergne | STR-Ferrari | 1:39.297 | 1.125 |
| 9 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus-Renault | 1:39.311 | 1.139 |
| 10 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 1:39.402 | 1.230 |
| 11 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams-Renault | 1:39.444 | 1.272 |
| 12 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 1:39.464 | 1.292 |
| 13 | Paul di Resta | Force India-Mercedes | 1:39.625 | 1.453 |
| 14 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:39.687 | 1.515 |
| 15 | Kimi Räikkönen | Lotus-Renault | 1:39.696 | 1.524 |
| 16 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1:40.271 | 2.099 |
| 17 | Bruno Senna | Williams-Renault | 1:40.678 | 2.506 |
| 18 | Sergio Perez | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:40.947 | 2.775 |
| 19 | Vitaly Petrov | Caterham-Renault | 1:41.464 | 3.292 |
| 20 | Timo Glock | Marussia-Cosworth | 1:41.681 | 3.509 |
| 21 | Heikki Kovalainen | Caterham-Renault | 1:42.594 | 4.422 |
| 22 | Charles Pic | Marussia-Cosworth | 1:42.874 | 4.702 |
| 23 | Narain Karthikeyan | HRT-Cosworth | 1:43.658 | 5.486 |
| 24 | Pedro de la Rosa | HRT-Cosworth | 1:43.823 | 5.651 |
See below for Speedcafe.com’s F1 Sepang Race Guide
