Ferrari leap ahead in second practice

F1 Grand Prix, GP China, Shanghai International Ciruit

Ferrari have emerged as the fastest contender during the second free practice session at China, with Raikkonen topping the timesheet ahead of team mate Sebastian Vettel. Both Mercedes followed closely in third and fourth.

Both Ferrari drivers seemed to be rather agile on the softest tyre available in China and jumped to the top of the times even without particularly clean laps.

Nico Rosberg came closest, albeit 0.237s off today's pace setter. He was little more than a tenth quicker than his teammate.

Behind the Mercedes however is a big performance gap of 0.8s to Daniel Ricciardo. He was quickest of the "rest", edging out Max Verstappen in the Toro Rosso. Nico Hulkenberg, 7th quickest, was another 3 tenths further behind.

In the trouble corner was again Esteban Gutierrez. In the morning he already saw his team try to fix electrical issues on his car, while FP2 didn't bring much improvement as his left rear brake burst in flames on his fourth lap, again rapidly ending his running.