Chinese GP Free Practice 2 - Button set the pace

The lap times tumbled this afternoon in sunny Shanghai and there was a more familiar look to the timesheets with Jenson Button setting the pace in the Brawn Mercedes with a best lap of 1:35.679s.

As ever in the second practice session of the Grand Prix weekend, the teams opted to run the super soft tyre for the first time in anger with Button setting the pace on his second run with the option tyre. Underlining the raw pace of the BGP 001 package, Rubens Barrichello ended the day with the third fastest time, just two-tenths adrift.

Nico Rosberg split the Brawn duo with his final soft tyre run late in the session, lapping just 0.025s slower than Button in the increasingly competitive Williams Toyota. Rosberg could well have piped Button best time were it not for a small error under braking at the end of the back straight on his first timed lap with fresh rubber.

Mark Webber and Sebastian topped the timesheets for much of the 90-minute session following their first run on the option tyre but the Red Bull Renault duo were later bumped down to fourth and fifth positions, just under half a second off the ultimate pace.

It was a busy session for Jarno Trulli as he completed 42 laps, more than any other runner, looking to make up for lost time following a small electrical fault in the morning session. The Italian veteran was sixth fastest in his Toyota ahead of Kazuki Nakajima in the second Williams and team-mate Timo Glock in the second TF109.

After topping the timesheets in the morning session with Lewis Hamilton, the afternoon programme would prove a little more difficult for the under-pressure McLaren Mercedes team. Hamilton was 13th in this session and unable to extract extra pace from the option tyre despite the new aero-package at his disposal this weekend, while only a late push from Heikki Kovalainen saw him vault from 19th to ninth just ahead of the chequered flag.

Sebastian Bourdais had a solid day in his Toro Rosso Ferrari as he set the tenth best time, just 1.1 seconds off Button’s pace while Adrian Sutil was also showing well in 11th in the leading Force India Mercedes.

Ferrari are not running KERS this weekend in the hope that they can find better reliability, but today in the three hours of practice the F60 looked a real handful with Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen slithering around to 12th and 14th respectively.

Sebastien Buemi picked up the pace late in the session and recorded the 15th best time in the second Toro Rosso Ferrari ahead of Nelson Piquet in the leading Renault. Piquet spent much of the session languishing at the bottom of the timesheets but his late run at least propelled him a little way up the order.

It was the usual Friday story over at BMW Sauber with neither Robert Kubica nor Nick Heidfeld being able to coax much pace out of the disappointing F1.09 package. Kubica spent much of the day acclimatising to KERS but it was notable that even when bolting on the option tyre, the lap times simply would not come. Kubica ended the day 17th with Heidfeld 18th.

While Flavio Briatore is saying the championship is all but over already, double world champion Fernando Alonso must also be harbouring similar feelings after being just 19th ahead of Giancarlo Fisichella this afternoon. Alonso only completed 28 laps in what looks to be another tough weekend for Renault.