Shanghai, FP2: Raikkonen heads Ferrari one-two in second practice

Kimi Raikkonen took over from Nico Rosberg at the top of the Chinese Grand Prix practice timesheets as Ferrari finished one-two in the afternoon session at the Shanghai International Circuit.

As the teams worked through performance runs on the supersoft tyres, Ferrari held out until later in the session and when Sebastian Vettel eventually took to the track on the red-banded Pirelli tyre he went quickest by 0.1s ahead of Rosberg.

Vettel, though, quickly eclipsed by Kimi Raikkonen, with the Finn edging his team-mate by just over a tenth of a second.

As in the morning session, Rosberg went marginally quicker than Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton, with the German setting a best time of 1:37.133 to beat the champion by 0.196s.

After appearing to struggle with an intractable car in the morning, Hamilton again looked to be having difficulty finding a comfort zone in the afternoon and he had an off at Turn 6 during the session and suffered a major lock-up late on.

Behind the champion, Daniel Ricciardo was fifth for Red Bull Racing. His best of the rest status was the result of a best lap of 1:38.143, some 1.2s adrift of Raikkonen’s P1 time.

The Australian was followed by Toro Rosso’s Max Verstappen, with the Dutch teenager almost three tenths of second clear of eighth-placed team-mate Carlos Sainz after the Spaniard had gone quicker in the morning session.

Spliting the Toro Rossos was Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg who set a best time of 1:38.527 31. He was followed by team-mate Carlos Sainz, while William’s Valtteri Bottas rounded out the top ten order with a time of 1:38.723 34.

Elsewhere, Kevin Magnussen sat out the session as Renault investigated the cause of the left rear suspension failure that brought his FP1 running to an early end.

Esteban Gutierrez also had a difficult session. After a gearbox sensor issue prevented him setting a time in the morning, the Haas driver’s woes continued when a brake issue restricted his FP2 running to just four laps.