Hamilton led a Mercedes one-two from team-mate George Russell in a session in which Max Verstappen failed to show his hand.

Oscar Piastri showed well for McLaren in fifth, following a solid opening hour in which he was third best – though one of the few to run soft compound rubber.

Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu were first on track as Free Practice 2 got underway on a circuit now bathed in floodlights.

Conditions were much cooler too, ambient having dropped by almost three degrees while the wind had eased considerably.

The track temp had also dropped some 10 degrees, leading immediately to faster times and soft tyre runs.

Most had abstained during Free Practice 1, held in the afternoon sun, resulting in Daniel Ricciardo topping proceedings from Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.

Lewis Hamilton went fastest on a set of the red-walled tyres inside the opening 10 minutes, banking a 1:30.751s, a time 0.8s away from the best set in similar conditions during testing.

Across the garage, Mercedes was running especially low, his car trailing sparks.

Grip was at a premium, with a number of drivers having moments. Charles Leclerc ran wide at the final corner, running over the kerb and reporting back, asking his team to look at the floor of his Ferrari for potential damage.

All 20 drivers had completed a soft tyre run by midway through the practice hour, with George Russell sitting second after 30 minutes ahead of Carlos Sainz and Oscar Piastri.

The Australian had finished third earlier in the day with his second practice effort of 1:30.784s, some 2.5s faster than that which propelled him to third fastest in Free Practice 1.

It was also a time just 0.4s off the outright pace.

By contrast, Daniel Ricciardo was more than 1.1s adrift of the lap laid down by Hamilton with Yuki Tsunoda about four-tenths further back in the second RB.

The session ran its duration with the usual race runs on soft compound tyres without incident.

That left the Mercedes of Hamilton fastest from team-mate George Russell, closely shadowed by Carlos Sainz for Ferrari.

Max Verstappen was only sixth, 0.477s off the pace, suggesting the true pecking order has still not emerged.

A final hour of running remains, beginning at 15:30 local time on Friday (23:30 AEDT).