Hamilton leads from Raikkonen in second F1 practice

Hamilton, quickest in the morning session, went nearly two seconds faster than in FP1 as he used Pirelli's soft tyres to set a best time of 1:37.219.

Unlike the first session, however, the world champion's closest challenger was not his teammate Rosberg, but the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen, who finished over four tenths behind in second.

Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo was third, albeit a second behind Hamilton, despite a difficult start to second practice, with both the Australian and teammate Daniil Kvyat spending a lot of time in the garage.

Red Bull problems

Kvyat did not complete his first timed lap after 30 minutes had passed, while Ricciardo was worse off, not taking to the track until nearly the 45-minute mark.

The Russian suffered more problems late in the session when he was asked to return to the pits slowly after smoke came out of his rear-left brake.

He did not make it, however, after the rear brakes failed completely and he ended up crashing against the barrier after the back straight.

Sebastian Vettel was fourth quickest in the second Ferrari, the German surviving a scare early in the session when he lost control of his car at the exit of Turn 4, spinning spectacularly before managing to continue despite a trip through the gravel.

Rosberg wound up fifth after a mistake on his soft-tyre run, ahead of Kvyat and the Williams of Valtteri Bottas.

Red flag

The session was red-flagged some 40 minute in when Bottas' teammate Felipe Massa lost the rear of his Williams under braking after the back straight.

The Brazilian was lucky to escape a major impact and only just kissed the barriers, breaking part of his front wing, but was unable to continue running later and finished down in 17th.

McLaren had its best session to date in 2015, with Jenson Button in 10th and Fernando Alonso in 12th.

Will Stevens' day came to an early finish after just six laps, the Briton hit by a power unit-related problem.

He finished at the bottom of the times over seven seconds off the pace.

There was a bizarre and dangerous moment some 20 minutes into the session when a man crossed the start/finish straight and jumped the pit wall before being arrested by police.

F1 - Chinese GP 2015 - Free Practice 2

	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
01	L. Hamilton	Mercedes	1:37.219		32
02	K. Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:37.662	+0.443	35
03	D. Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:38.311	+1.092	24
04	S. Vettel	Ferrari	1:38.339	+1.120	30
05	N. Rosberg	Mercedes	1:38.399	+1.180	35
06	D. Kvyat	Red Bull	1:38.737	+1.518	10
07	V. Bottas	Williams	1:38.850	+1.631	27
08	F. Nasr	Sauber	1:39.032	+1.813	26
09	R. Grosjean	Lotus	1:39.142	+1.923	32
10	J. Button	McLaren	1:39.275	+2.056	29
11	P. Maldonado	Lotus	1:39.444	+2.225	30
12	F. Alonso	McLaren	1:39.743	+2.524	27
13	M. Ericsson	Sauber	1:39.751	+2.532	33
14	M. Verstappen	Toro Rosso	1:39.894	+2.675	32
15	C. Sainz	Toro Rosso	1:39.971	+2.752	28
16	N. Hulkenberg	Force India	1:40.151	+2.932	28
17	F. Massa	Williams	1:40.423	+3.204	7
18	S. Perez	Force India	1:40.868	+3.649	24
19	R. Merhi	Manor	1:42.973	+5.754	7
20	W. Stevens	Manor	1:44.564	+7.345	8