Hamilton fastest in China

Work continued in Shanghai on Friday afternoon with a second 90-minutes practice session.

The McLaren-Mercedes team enjoyed a good day with Jenson Button going fastest in the morning and Lewis Hamilton setting the pace in the afternoon.

The Briton lapped the SIC in 1’35’’217 to end the day on top. He was two tenths of a second faster than Nico Rosberg. His teammate Button was third fastest ahead of Michael Schumacher.

With McLaren and Mercedes locking up the top four, the Red Bull Racing team had to content itself with the fifth and sixth fastest lap time for Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber.

Having had a new engine fitted to his F10 – the one used in the winning race in Bahrain – Fernando Alonso concentrated on heavy fuel runs and ended the day in tenth position.

Jaime Alguersuari brought some satisfaction in the Toro Rosso camp with the eighth fastest time. His teammate Sebastien Buemi didn’t take part to the session as the team’s mechanics were busy working on his car after his horrific morning’s accident.

Heikki Kovalainen had to stop on track in the final part of the session because of a mechanical problem on his Lotus.