China – Free Practice 2: Tyres Suffer in Shanghai, Massa Takes Advantage

The air temperature is 22 degrees with the track showing 36 degrees as free practice 2 for the 2013 Chinese Grand Prix begins. The Saubers are the first to break the silence and hit the Shanghai circuit. It can be observed that, just like this morning, the cars are sliding a lot and very quickly due to the graining phenomenon affecting the majority of teams except for Mercedes.

Esteban Guttierez sets the first benchmark time at 1:41.876, immediately beaten by Jean-Eric Vergne with a lap completed in 1:40.951. The session begins poorly for Max Chilton, who has to stop his Marussia on the trackside due to a technical problem. On the timing front, the big guns quickly emerge, and after 10 minutes, it’s Nico Rosberg—already the fastest this morning—who leads the pack with a 1:37.669, ahead of Webber and Hamilton.

Adrian Sutil and Sergio Pérez have a minor off-track excursion in turn 7. It was inconsequential for the German while Sergio Pérez heads back to his pit box after hitting the tire wall that was positioned at a good distance from the track.

The two Mercedes are leading the way and the German team asks Lewis Hamilton to come in to switch to soft tires. This should further improve lap times. Mark Webber, who has also switched to soft tires, sets the best time at 1:36.092 but is slower than Rosberg (on medium tires) by 0.1 seconds in the last sector.

After 30 minutes, the session is led by Nico Rosberg with a time of 1:35.819 ahead of Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton. Notably, Daniel Ricciardo is then 4th ahead of Fernando Alonso. At the back, Charles Pic also improves his time but is 21st. Only Valtteri Bottas has not set a time. Renault engineers are busy with the French V8 in the Williams garage.

At mid-session, the Finnish driver’s FW34 still hasn’t taken to the track, while Felipe Massa puts his Ferrari ahead of everyone with a time of 1:35.340. It should also be noted that at this stage of the session, some teams are starting to perform race simulations. This is the case, for example, with Nico Rosberg at Mercedes. This does not seem to be the case for Räikkönen at Lotus. The E21s had been discreet until now, but the Finn sets the second-fastest time behind Felipe Massa, with 40 minutes of testing remaining. Valtteri Bottas steps out of the shadows a few minutes later and tentatively places himself in 17th position.

With 30 minutes remaining some drivers are complaining about tire wear. This includes Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel, and Kimi Räikkönen. In terms of timing, there are no significant changes as the drivers are doing long runs to prepare for Sunday’s race. The medium tires are also making a comeback.

A little over 10 minutes into this session and Jenson Button comes into the pits due to a flat spot that caused excessive wear on the front left tire. After a change, the Englishman comes back in to stop again.

The end of the session will be mainly marked by Max Chilton, who once again has to leave his Marussia at the side of the track due to an oil leak. As for the times, it is Felipe Massa who was the fastest with 1:35.340. The Brazilian is ahead of Kimi Räikkönen and Fernando Alonso. Rosberg is 4th and Lewis Hamilton 7th.

Results of Free Practice 2 of the 2013 Chinese Grand Prix: