The Chinese Grand Prix - Practice 2 Formula 1

Good morning, welcome back to China, if you joined us for practice one,

if you didn't, welcome to China. This is free practice two, it is

the second session of two. We are in the pit lane and Ben Edwardss is

in commentary, and our technical analyst, Gary Anderson joining us

to discuss what we saw in free practice earlier. Mercedes very

quick out of the box, good lap times, last week again Nico Rosberg,

last year Nico Rosberg was in pole position. That surprised everyone?

They were good in the first couple of races and they stepped it up and

they weren't caught. Luke Shuey of third. The longer corners here,

they seemed to have the balance through theers and get the throttle

back in and come off the corner very quickly. It seems a good car

on this type of track. You can't take too much from free practice in

terms of times, they are testing different things. If we have a lock

at the times from this morning. We can see they were considerably

can see they were considerably quicker than the re- of the field.

Rosberg was quicker than last year, they have improved the car, the

track conditions are changing but the two Red Bulls there, third and

fourth, so that's going to be interesting, we are always sure

that Red Bull do a very constructive job, they do their

homework veryle well. We never see their true performance until

qualifying. That's true. Mark did come out like a scalded cat, you

wonder if he's revved up after the team orders incident in Malaysia.

We know what happened at Silverstone? Mark believes in

himself and that he's as quick as Sebatian Vettel. That controversy

happened three weeks ago, this is the first time to show it. He has

to go quicker than Sebatian Vettel in all sessions and qualifying and

the race, he has proved a point.S This is the second session of three.

It is the same as qualifying and the race on Sunday? Track

temperatures are getting higher. It is very important to do your race

run on the harder tire and make sure you have good stability and

sure you have good stability and try a quick lap on the softer tyre.

What is the latest, good news, I'm down at the McLaren garage, Sergio

Perez will be running, no problems for him. It was on his in-lap, he

was getting ready to come into the pits, he cooled down his tyres and

was going slower and in the pit lane he just lost control and did

exactly what Lewis Hamilton did a few years ago, watching his team-

mates and took the wrong tips. He crashed and did some damage to the

nose, it was an old speck nose, no problem, they put the new one on.

He will go out in free practice. You were talking about the sun, it

is beautiful here, it makes such a difference to last year. The track

temperature 35 degrees, and the air temperature 22 degrees.

That has gone up a bit since this morning, it was 30 degrees. It is

warmer. I wonder if we can see the incident from Sergio Perez, if you

didn't catch it earlier, this is what we were talking about. Coming

in off the track here straight up into the pit lane and he locked it

up, front tyres no temperature in them. From a team point of view

they made an error, his tyres have got cold and he suffered the

consequences because of that. are you expecting for this session?

This is the true session, we will see good performance in some of the

cars lap time-wise, a more true picture. We have to wait and see.

The Mercedes looks pretty good. We go to the commentary box.

Thank you very much, the first session was relatively quiet apart

from the incident for Sergio Perez at the end. Most others got a

decent number of laps in. Felipe Massa had the fewers number at 14.

We saw the odd spin, Esteban Gutierrez had a moment on the first

corner. Kimi Raikkonen had a spin, that is unusual, but he did have

one in Malaysia. Apart from the odd locking up into the hairpin. No

surprise. This is one of the biggest breaks of the season.

Overall this track is not particularly hard on brakes, but at

the end of the straight putting 6G on the breaks. They are going from

something like 200 miles an hour to 44 miles an hour in 125ms. The

brakes take a lot of punishment on that particular corner. Elsewhere

on the track it is not so hard on the track it is not so hard

brake as some of the others. Here comes Esteban Gutierrez, learning

the Sir quit this weekend with a few incidents this morning. We

should see some of the teams using soft tyre, not just yet, most will

come out on the medium compound, the harder of the two, to start the

session. We will see them making a switch. It does vary, they get

going for 25 minutes or so. Then they will tend to put a set of the

soft tyres on, that will give us an indicator in terms of outright

speed between the different teams and competitor. After that we will

see them do some race runs by which they will put more fuel in the car

and do a series of laps to get an idea of how long tyres will lap

under race conditions. Will they be able to go further than that and do

20 laps on a set of tyres, that is the sort of information they need

to be learning today. We will see that a little later on in the

session. We will try to monitor the lap times and give you an idea of

who is locking good at that point. On the new tyre, it is the harder,

the medium compound tyre. Jenson Button about to go out to start the

second practice something he. We have a few cars out already,

Gutierrez, Richie Vernon, Chilton has gone out. The Daniel Ricciardo

is out there, Paul di Resta is waiting for the signal to come from

the full senior team to send him on his way and put behind them the

rather disastrous pit stops they suffered last time out in Malaysia

where they lost so much time. There is the man who leads the World

Championship, Sebatian Vettel after the controversial win in Malaysia.

He leads the event and by nine points over the winner of the first

Grand Prix, Kimi Raikkonen. Mark Webber is currently third, Anthony

Hamilton is fourth. A good couple of -- Lewisham ham is fourth, a

good couple of consistent finshes for him. This is turn three, a

tight left-hander, wide mid-corner. Tentative on the power, perhaps.

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 41 seconds

Let's listen as he comes along flat gradually starts to open up. This

is one of the longest straights in Formula One. There is the car off

in the distance, Jenson Button is closer to us, and behind him is

Esteban Gutierrez. McLaren have come with quite a lot of new parts

for their cars. We know that they struggle, particularly in Australia,

they have made progress in Malaysia as well. But Gary, I know you have

been having a bit of a look around the McLaren what have they changed

on that car and what are they hoping for this weekend? They are

hoping to make progress. They started in Australia very poor low.

And one of the things with the car is the concept, the package of the

car is quite good, as long as they haven't exploited some of the

detail on it. It is about getting those things to work together. Here

they have a exhaust exit, trying to make them work with the exhaust

system. The high velocity of the exhaust system into the bottom of

the rear brakebacks, and that creates force on the back of the

car. We call that the coke bottle, with the brakes and the body of the

car working together. They have those modifications had this

morning. This morning Jenson ran it but Sergio didn't. He has gone out

of the pits, and the engine covers are the same now, both cars up to

the same spescation. They were happy this morning it was a step

forward. In Malaysia they were reasonably competitive and they

will try to be more competitive here while they try to regroup and

get enough stuff made for the first of the European races in Barcelona.

That will be their target. Jenson Button heading down the long

Button, just getting tyres sorted. This is likely to be a quick lap

now. This is where he crosses the line. On to a flying lap. That lap

not particularly special. But let's goes fastest. It looked lairy on

the exit of the last corn he, he held it together pretty well.

Hamilton has set the pace in the early stage, he's on the harder of

the two compound of tyres. Giedo van der Garde coming down on

passing Romain Grosjean, and that all got a bit confusing, I don't

know if he thought Grosjean would let him through or quite what was

going on there. But Giedo van der Garde and Romain Grosjean getting

through the incident without any problem. Just to tell you that

Charles Pic is out in the other Caterham now. We saw the other

Caterham driver, he was the slowest of the 22 drivers out there. That

is Max Chilton in The Marriage Plot, stopping on -- the Marussia,

stopping there trying to get out of the way, it look like a mechanical

problem on Marussia at the moment. We gather that Charles Pic has been

reporting a steering problem on his Caterham. Maybe it is a steering

wheel problem, maybe it is not connected in. Gary what have you

got for us? We will try to find out in the pit lane, the steering works

by the hide drollics, and the clutch. If you have a hide drollic

leak the system will fail. You need to get back to the pits before you

use it all. Not changing the gear means he's not using the system and

shouldn't leak oil. Maybe the same has happened to Chilton. Huge

amount of interest against both Red Bull and how they compare. Vettel

is faster in the first sector, and Vettel in the second sector. Looks

as though they are evenly matched. Webber is fastest in the second

sector. Working the car hard as you can see, he's over the kerb, 1.37.7,

not as quick as Rosberg. Rosberg has set the pace, and Webber a

fraction off that. Let's see if Vettel is quicker, he uses a lot of

road himself, on to the DRS as the rear flap opens. It is not good

enough. Webber has the edge over Vettel and Rosberg over Hamilton.

There goes Jenson Button a fifth- fastest time. Looking at Perez

followed by Grosjean, Grosjean has scored points in Formula One for

the first time in his career 12 month ago here. He had done a

little Formula One before that season, a partial season, last year

was his first opportunity to score points. He has scored points in

one quick lap, this lap is looking pretty competitive as well. He's

about two tenths of a second down on the first sector to what Vettel

had done. Second sector down a little bit on what Webber has done.

This lap is not going to be an outright improvement. Off has gone

Perez, again, for the second time today, we see Perez in a gravel

track. He's not having a very good time of it at the moment. I think

he has managed to just about drag it out of the gravel. Rosberg, it

is a better lap, that was all done in the final sector. That's very

interesting. The final sector is basically the long straight down

and the final hairpin and the left hander. Gary your thoughts on this,

in terms of speed trap figures, it is Gutierrez who is topping the

speed traps at 320kms an hour, exactly 200 miles an hour.

going back to the pit. Understood, box this lap. Perez coming in, no

surprise. The Mercedes set up for a pretty fast speed in a straight

line, locking at those figure? they are. This is one of those

circuits where to be honest that straight is so long, that it is too

real straights and a mix up of the last third of the lap. It makes up

a third of the lap with a hairpin in it. You have to have the car set

up right for the straight line speed against the cornering speed.

That is where Mercedes have got a nice compromise. You can see the

quickness in the first second session but the last sector of the

lap too. It is a compromise to come up with. We had a replay of Perez

going off, he certainly managed to hit the wall with the back of the

car, and a spin for Adrian Sutil as well. That is come down out of turn

eight and nine. That looked like the same area that Perez had got

off. Whether it was slippery out there, it caught them both out or

they are trying a little hard at this stage in the session? We will

have to find out. That was an interesting line from Lewis

Hamilton, going slowly, but bouncing it over the kerb. That was

eye on Perez? I am, one of the things I have noticed is he has

flat spots all round the tyres, but the right-hand rear tyre has gone

straight through to the canvas and the left-hand one all the way

through to the canvas. The back I would imagine he locked the brake

on the rear entry, it is like pulling the hand brake on a normal

car and the rear goes past you. It is one of those things, you haven't

that many sets of tyres to throw away. Nice to see David Coulthard

doing his research in the viewing gallery of Red Bull, wonder if he

can sense any atmosphere that exists between the two drivers

there. Let's get some news from Jenny about Max Chilton. What have

Jenny about Max Chilton. What have you learned? It appears it did stop

out on track, an engine kill, something to do with, they are not

sure until they get the car back. Something to do with the oil system,

a protective system that cut n kills the engine, leaves Max out on

the track but when they get back they will do a thorough

investigation and work out what has investigation and work out what has

gone wrong. It is good to know it is not too

serious, but the loss of track time is key. He won't be allowed back

out in the session. It will hurt over the weekend, losing these kind

of laps early on in the weekend that can dictate how the whole rest

of your weekend goes. Gary, it is, to lose one of these sessions for

any team, particularly for a young driver. It can be quite painful

can't it? Every lap you do you find a new experience, you learn more

about the car and the track and how it all works together. Just going

to that oil kill that Jenny was talking about. It is a system on

the car where you are measuring the oil pressure, if the oil pressure

drops below a certain amount it will switch the engine off. You use

that during practice. You usually disarm it during the race, because

sensors can also fail. You don't want to stop on a race because of

that failure. You will take that out of the system for the race. For

practice it is good to see it ago, Lewis Hamilton is fastest in

the first sector than Rosberg was. Not as quick in the second sector.

He has lost nearly three tenths of a second to Rosberg in the second

sector. Now he's on to the long straight where he saw the Mercedes

slower, we know how well Rosberg goes around the track Giedo van der

Garde has had a spin there, went over the grass bit on the outside.

Back in, comes out of him, such a fast approach that corner. They go

in it seems almost flat out, this didn't have the grip to respond to

that. He has continued and no other major fall-out from that. Gary, I'm

sure you remember last year in qualifying, when we were covering

it and the two Mercedes were looking great, there was that lap

put in early on for Nico, Schumacher asked what lap time he

did, and he said that was good, that gave us an indication of how

well he was driving. It was seven tenths of a second from Schumacher.

He had done a lap he thought was pretty megaand Nico was seven

tenths quicker, it got him scratching the head. Ever driver as

-- has a track that suits the way he drives. And this is Nico's, he

has led all three years previously for Mercedes, he has led the race

at some point in time at this track. It is just a track that gels with

him. Have a look at the data on the box,

box, box. We will look at that. They are going for the option tyre,

the soft tyre will be put on the car soon. Everyone on their medium

except Richie Vernon -- Pontus is Max Chilton there, a bit

frustrating for him to sit out the whole rest of the session without

getting any meaningful laps in. He hadn't completed a flying lap at

all. He had done a couple of installation laps. You are at

McLaren, what is going on there Gary? Keeping an eye on them,

Jenson Button his car happy. They have changed the rear anti-roll bar

in his car, that stops the car falling around corners. If you put

a hard one there is less traction and softer a bit more oversteer but

more traction. I can't see if it is bigger or smaller one. Sergio Perez

when he came in the brakes themselves are full of stones, the

brake nuts on these things are really fairly complicate. They have

to come off to get the stones out. It such a small clearance inside

there, it is very easy for a stone to get wedged and work its way and

cut the rim in two and you get a deflating tyre. That is the last

thing needs right now. It looked as what I said about the car locking

up the rear is true. He was telling the engineer the car snapped side

ways on him. If the car is in the stands and they are trying to fix

older than Rosberg. Whatever Hamilton's just found he's found a

decent chunk of time there, whether it was in driving style or simply

making a change to the car. But it has worked. He has now got right in

to second place just behind Rosberg. This is Williams, the news came

between Malaysia and this race that Claire Williams is deputy team

principal. She is talking to Jenny. Congratulations, dep toe team

principal, how does it feel to have -- deputy team principal, how does

it feel to have stepped up? excited about the challenge ahead

and I'm ready for it. We will see how it goes.S This is the first

time as we hear Pastor's car in the background, this is the first time

you are here taking charge of things, because your father doesn't

come to the race in China. What have you had to do, what is your

role this weekentend? I'm stepping back, I'm not technical, that is

not my main remit in this role. Obviously I have an oversight. I'm

involved. But my confidence in the technical director for that sieftd

team. That is how we are structured at Williams. My primary focus is

commercial. That will be my main responsibility. I attend debriefs,

I always have, much more so I know what is going on. It is interesting.

Talking about the technical side of things, we no it has been a

desappointing start, Pastor hasn't finished a race and bots bot bots

hasn't -- bot Bottas hasn't done well. We have various aerodynamic

upgrades, we have run different tests and on P2 we have gone for

the best package and put it on both the cars. We are looking at those

in readiness for tomorrow. It must be hard to control Valtteri, the

new driver's emotion, he wants to come in and do well but the car is

not letting him. Valt valt is calm, cool Valtteri is calm and fool a

typical Finn, Vijay Mallya will finish the race, he's not a an

inexperienced driver, he will finish this weekend. Thank you for

talking to us. Mark Webber has now put on the soft tyre, and immediate

low is up on the splits. No surprise there. He has taken about

four tenths out of the first split time. Just want to make a note that

Frenando Alonso, between the Mercedes and The Red House on the

initial tyre run, the medium compound tyre, that is a good

effort by Ferrari, looking more confident in the abilities of the

car. They are in the hunt pace-wise, if you look at how they put in a

decent lap this morning already. Webber here already up again on the

second split. Beating anybody else's time into that second split.

Now the third split, of course, as we know, is mainly about a straight

line. So it is unlikely the soft tyres will have such a big effect

on the sector time, they will help as he gets on the brakes and gets

the power down out of the hairpin. Let's just see how clean this is.

Looking very neat and tidy Mark Webber. Last year he passed Vettel

during the race, no team orders were brought into case that

on those tyres than the medium compound tyre. Gary I know you are

locking around pit lane be that is a big jump, Webber going from 1.37

to 1.37? That may be fuel lower. We are expecting half a second to

eight tenths of a second between the medium and soft tyre in the lap

time. I would imagine he has taken fuel out to see what it will be

like in qualifying. I'm sure it is not low fuel but lower fuel. The

Mercedes garage, looking at Lewis Hamilton after a few laps, he's sat

in the car. They are fiddling around with the front brake. They

have got one front brake that Lewis Hamilton's right-hand brake,

without looking at it has holes in the top of it to let heat out of it,

but the right-hand break doesn't have that. That is because the tyre

temperatures and everything isn't the same. The air coming out of the

brakes is 700-800 degrees, it can help warm the tyre up very quickly.

You need both front tyres up to the right temperature quickly. He's

going out on the soft tyre next. It will be interesting to see what the

two Mercedes tyres can do with it. The softerer the tyre more traction

you get. We have to wait and see that all the cars can make the best

use out of the softer tyre. Here is Esteban Gutierrez in the

Sauber, he is about to complete a lap. That is his best lap so far.

It put him 16th. He is on the medium compound. The white wall

tyre. He's not doing his soft tyre run just yet. Still lock up on the

inside front. Still looking a little bit scrappy. We will see

what happens when he puts the soft tyre on. Button still on the medium

tyre. McLaren working through a big programme. Sam Michaels saying they

had only got through 20-40% of the programme they have lined up today

through the practice session. There is an awful lot of work to do and

huge amount of number crunching. Driver feedback plays the part, but

at the end of the day all their decisions are based on data,

certainly when they have time, as they have through a Friday and

Saturday and deciding how to set the cars up. They use data to make

the changes, perhaps in qualifying when it needs a final tweak, they

will be listening to the driver for a little change to the car to bring

them that little extra piece of performance. Get in touch on

Twitter. Do sent send us your tweets and comments. A slide by

Jenson Button as he gets the back end of the McLaren collide sliding

Chinese Grand Prix. A typical Jenson drive, he judged to

perfection what tyre to be on at the right time. He came under

pressure from Lewis Hamilton, but Button had it all wrapped up. They

were able to taken a extremely God 1-2 finish. The last time there

were two McLaren drivers on the pod come was last year, when Jenson

Button finished second, and Lewis yesterday and the car isn't great,

is it the lack of downforce as a droifr or is it spooky to drive?

says the balance changes all the time during the race. You don't

have one thing or another, the balance of the car is constantly

changing. As a driver trying to get around corners and judge the speeds,

and it is changing all the time, it make their life very difficult.

This car looks a lot more stable. Flat out top speed, an adjustment

to the brake balance for Nico Rosberg as we come towards the

the brake, the tyre temperatures are good. Still the same problem as

the last run, but worse at high- speed. Rosberg there going fastest,

1.35.8, better than Schumacher managed in free practice. We will

see times get quicker than that into practice three and qualifying.

Nico Hulkenberg in the Sauber there. Teams have their third drivers in

attendance often in the Grand Prixs, we saw the Caterham driver. The

young American driver also linked with the team is Alexandra Rossi. I

understand you are disappointed you are not in the car but Monterey all

is when you will take to trb Montreal is where you will be?

disappointed not to be driving, to misout this weekend was

disappointing, but having the Chinese driver makes sense. I want

to be driving in Austin so I relate to that. Montereyal will be the

next one, North America, we will have to put it all together and

enjoy as much as we can. What are Caterham saying about the car?

weren't expecting the gap to be that big, half a second. We are

doing the best we can. We have brought forward the changes from

Barcelona to Bahrain, so the race drivers can have as much time in

the new car. We will see what happens. We have high hopes and

fingers crossed we will be able to jump back in front of Marussia.

Everyone asks about Barcelona, that seems to be the usual place, it is

logistics and people having time to upgrade, but also the fact it is so

much closer to Britain. But Caterham reacting to the problems

that you are facing, so hopefully next time out you can be a little

bit more competitive? We made a decision at the end of last year

and beginning this of this year to focus on the 2014 car. Expected the

2012 car would carry over to 2013 and we would stay in the position

with Marussia. The fact it hasn't happened has changed the game plan.

We were forced to bring more upgrades than we thought and sooner.

It is not bad thing to have somebody rushing you, it makes us

work harder. At the end of the year we need to make sure we are back in

front and on the note we did in 2012. You mentioned Texas, having

the Grand Prix back in America and having you trying to drive the car,

how important is that combination for make and F1 to succeed there?

It is massively important. Austin went very well last year, not only

did F1 receive it well but the fans received it well. At the same time

the Americans want their own countrymen in it. To be involved in

the weekend in some small way is better than nothing. At least to

the next step in 2014 of actually to be racing. We will see what we

can do. For sure I'm counting the days for that to happen. Thank you

very much for talking to us. At six foot two, the tallest man in the

paddock at the moment. and a bit more in the final sector.

There was traffic which didn't help his cause. Hulkenberg who is he

signalling to, it might have been the other Mercedes. The bloody

Mercedes didn't get out of the way. Copy Nicosia. He's --Copy Nico.

He's complaining about both of the Mercedes who didn't get out of the

way. We were talking about respect for drivers and Gary in that

particular understand stance it looked like Hulkenberg did get

caught up, that is down to and awareness from drivers and teams?

They have all got a lap tracker. All the teams in the pit lane here,

they have this little circuit that shows where all the cars are on the

track. In reality these things shouldn't be happening. They should

advise their driver how to get out of the traffic, and the other teams

advising the drivers blocking someone to get out of the way

quicker. It will happen the other way round some time. What do you

want everybody playing hard ball blocking each other and the FIA

will have to come down on them. The teams and drivers have to

discipline themselves to make sure everybody has the best opportunity.

While you are on, we have a question from a young collateral

fan a question for Gary, is there an aerodynamic gain on the gap on

the nose? He's talking about the gap where the nose cone is where

the driver's knee would be? A bit further forward. What happens there,

last year we had the step nose, and Sauber had a duct coming through

from the underneath of the nose to the stop of the nose. And this year

they have still got the step nose but they have sides on it, from the

side it doesn't look so bad, but we have a ramp in the centre section.

When the air is being ramped over the top of the chassis, it creates

an airflow behind it. That airflow gets sucked through the gap from

underneath the nose. It is a mechanism for trying to pull more

air through the front wing by draging it through the front wing,

through this hole in the nose and over the top of the chassis. So it

would be a very, very small change to be honest. I would say if you

were going to try to look at it in a wind tunnel. Farce what the

performance game would be, you would never see it disappear into

three decimal points. But in theory it should give a little bit. Sauber

have gone for it. They are not the only team. Other people have look

at it a little bit. It is just one of those little things that you

design into the car to begin with, and leave it there. It should be

better, yes. A couple of other tweets I will run

through. "will the tensions caused by Red Bull and Mercedes orders

last time out make the other teams cautious in using them too"? That

could be the case. Most teams are cautious about using team orders,

particularly at this stage of the season. There is a feeling up and

down the paddock, early point in the season at which to use team

orders, nobody knows the full inside story except Red Bull and

Mercedes. They were dealing with what they had to cope with. Another

message in, a McLaren fan he saying, "I have to say I'm worried about

the pace of the Mercedes, guess Lewis is feeling a little smug

right now". He made the change to Mercedes, a lot of people thought

he was making a mistake, but looking at the pace of the Mercedes

it is not looking like a bad choice. And another comment" Perez isn't

ready for the McLaren seat, a lot of pressure for him". I don't think

so, he has made mistakes but the can isn't where they want it to be

yet. Perez is still finding his feet a little bit. He should be on

form once the war is a little better. Earlier on in the session

we saw Max Chilton pulling to a stop sadly in his Marussia. We find

stop sadly in his Marussia. We find out more now.

Disappointment for you, the kill system overrode anything you could

do personally, just talk us through what happened? I was just starting

my first real pushing lap on the newer primes and I just went into

turn one and lost all power. It was a safety thing, it cut out off

before the engine gave way. That is wait it goes sometimes. It is

unfortunate, because this morning the session went really well. I

have never been here. Me and Jules match each other's paces and beat

the Caterham, but it is hard when things like that set you back a bit.

We have seen the garage back in the garage, a time for the engineers to

look at it. Obviously for you, this is the first time in this circuit,

it is a technical track, you wanted the time out there to learn it?

got out there this morning and learned it for the first time, my

pace was good compared to Jules, we matched each other, I haven't been

here before. Obviously this is the session where you really start

trying things. It is unfortunate. We might manage to get back out,

you never know. Can you take any comfort from the fact that he's out

there at the moment and running an 11? It is really promising, a

really good time. Hopefully I can get out and have a go. More

upgrades on the way for you, the same as everybody else, each race

bringing Mork these ones are really working? They are really working,

you need updates often and as much as you can. We are getting that so

far. It is giving us a nice gap to Caterham. I will let you go back to

the engineers. Max Chilton losing valuable time, his team-mate has

gone for the soft tyre run, has done a good job. Jules Bianchi is

11th in the standings, for Marussia that is very good. Not everyone is

on soft tyres. He has done a 1.38.7, reasonable, looking at the next

soft runner time 1.38.2, only half a second off Hulkenberg's time in

the software in the Marussia versus Hulkenberg in the Sauber. It shows

you how well Marussia are doing this year. We will see if they can

keep it up. The other side of the coin for Mallya. He has been

struggling with the Williams all struggling with the Williams all

season long. One of the only drivers not to have managed to

finish a race so far this year. Two DNFs in the races in Melbourne and

Malaysia. It is proving a bit difficult. Obviously still

struggling at the moment with this car to get it balmed the way he

the grip to respond how he wants. Williams are in good shape, last

year he had he they had two cars in the point on different tyre

strategies. It was one of the best races of the years. Susie Wolff,

the third driver at Williams, looking forward to getting a chance

at one of the young driver tests to drive the Williams herself and give

it a proper go in race circuit conditions. To see how she goes

with that. Then maybe if that goes well, we may well end up seeing her

in one of these free practice something hes maybe later this year

or next year. We will have to wait and see. She knows there is still

plenty to be done by the team to get the car right. I think she's

probably happy to wait at the moment for her opportunity to drive

it, until they have got it dialed in a little better. This is Massa

Alonso. If he manages in China as a fifth time, that is something that

has never happened to Alonso before. To be outqualified by a team-mate

five-times in a row. That is what Massa has on offer for him this

weekend. Nice little incentive. He the Sauber or the McLaren, but this

is still a good lap from Massa, has he done enough to go ahead of the

Mercedes, he has! Great lap from Massa. Remember fuel loads will

vary between the different cars. It is to his advantage that he has

done this run a little later than Rosberg. The track is still

cleaning up. But none the less, Gary let's get reaction from you. I

think that lap time from Massa shows Ferrari should be in good

shape. Fuel loadss, yes, you mentioned, it was aed goo lap. We

can only compare it to last year, - - it was a good lap we can only

compare it to last year. That long straight hurt the engine a bit. You

get good tyre performance but you lose straight line speed. As long

as you are going faster than last year, everybody is moving forward.

Just watching Alonso here. He's just put the softer tyre on his car.

Obviously he's pretty happy with it. He has a different front end on the

car. You can see outside the front wing end pit there is two little

intake ducts, en mass mass's car there is only one. Slight small

developments. This area in the front wing in front of the front

tyre is critical to when you steer the car. When you turn the steering

wheel you open up the gap behind the wing and get different airflow

there, it is easy to ask the front wing to do too much and stall the

downforce. These little slots on the wing and the end plates, they

are all to get consistency as the driver applies steering lock, puts

it on or off the car. Different combination of those Ferraris at

the moment, I'm sure they will hone in to one of them tomorrow. Friday

is often used of back-to-back testing of different components on

the cars. It is like low they will end up with the same, whatever

works best. Speed trap figures are on the graphic.

Hulkenberg, the other Sauber, the two Mercedes, then the two Ferraris,

it often goes like this in team order. Because the two cars are

pretty much identical or should be. Vettel in 14th place, Webber in

17th. No surprise in that, that has been standard issue with Red Bull

over their championship-winning seasons, they don't look for

straight line speed. They tend to go for the more downforce side of

the downforce drag compromise. They might carry a little more drag, but

they will have a bit more downforce. They always like to have that. Some

tweets, thank you very much. "is the McLaren looking for competitive,

is Jenson going to be a contender this weekend"? Just looking at the

times so far. We are waiting for the run on the soft tyre, there is

confidence that they are moving forward, but it going to be enough

for them to really challenge up front? That will be guess work from

all our points of view. We will have to wait and see what happens

in qualifying tomorrow. Another tweet "how many spares of new front

wings has McLaren brought this weekend, serg geohas damaged one

with the impressive spin"? We were told by Sam Michael that they had a

spare, the old style front wing was on the car at the time. It wasn't

the new front wing. They are not at all concerned about that. They are

not at all worried. Another one know, "new news when the passive

front wing device will be used"? Gary, worth blinging you on, we

wondered -- bringing you on here, we wondered if we would see the

called passive drag reduction on the cars this weekend, it would be

track where it would be useful, no evidence so far? Not yet. As you

say, this track suits them w that big long straight, the fastest

corner here. There is a reasonable gap between the as ifest gap -- as

the fastest gap, but I think it is very difficult to make the system

work, it will take so much set-up time during practice you won't get

the rest of the car right. I'm sure most people will try to focus on

getting the rest of the car set up right to make the tyres work better

and more consistently. We don't see the DRS system until we hit some of

the tracks in up I don't. Just because it is so much agravation to

take on for these fly away races. Jenson Button just congression the

line. He has gone fourth on the Susie, you will give us a tour?

I have been invited into the McLaren garage, we're not normally

allowed. Here are all the radios, there is Jenson's radio, everything

nicely marked there. If you go around the corner, this is where

they take their VIPs, to see exactly what is going on in the

garage. So if we just wander through here. You will get a sense,

thank you Sylvia, who set it up for us. This is race watch.

Shut this so it is quiet. If you look ahead, you can see the island,

and that's what McLaren have introduced into the pit garage, on

the right is Sergio's car, and on the left is Jenson Button. I can't

have too much of a squint in here, I can have a quick chat with Kevin,

a great weekend for you in Monza, you are driving in World Series

Renault. You had a terrific start to the season? It was not too bad.

We had two second places, both races second place. A good solid

start to the year. Tell us what you are doing this weekend? I'm third

driver this weekend. So I'm really just here to be ready if anything

happens to one of the drivers. But also just to learn and to see how

everything works a bit better, it is nice, a good opportunity.

Presumably you want to follow in your dad's footsteps? I'm here to

learn and to learn everything I can and to follow the weekend and see

how the team works, and then to hopefully it is a step in the right

direction. We are seeing Sergio going off there, you are sitting in

on any of the meetings? What are you taking away from the weekend,

on the driver briefings or any of the meetings are you sitting in?

I'm with all the briefings. I can follow everything that's happening

in the weekend. Because I need to be ready if anything happens. So I

need to follow everything that's going on. You are in the McLaren

Young Drivers' Programme, what do you have to do with that. Do you

get to be in the team? The Young Driver Programme is basically

support in all areas, guidance in my career, and fitness training,

and simulator, and support in every area. And Jenson has come back in

just over there. Do you get on with the I gos, do you get much chance

to speak to them? Obviously they are very busy. They are nice chaps

both guys are really good guys. So it is good. Obviously Jenson is the

most experienced driver in the paddock, does he say anything that

can help you? Jenson is a nice guy, great experience and good for

McLaren. When is your next race?In two weeks at Motorland. Let me go

outside, we will have a closer look if we can, if there is not too much

happening on track. Where can I go, I don't want to be naughty too

early in the season. There we go. There is Jenson's car, this is

pretty much as close as we have ever been in any of these sessions

n all its glory. He will be going out again as soon as they have

changed all their settings. Thank you very much, great to have

that access. And good to hear from Kevin Magnusson as well, the 20-

year-old son of Yan, a former Grand year-old son of Yan, a former Grand

Prix driver himself. He drove a one-off race for McLaren back in

1995, and drove for the Stewart's team in 1998.

Let me tell you Raikkonen has gone up there in The Lotus Eaters. The

This is Sergio Perez, Gary talk to us more about the tyres here?

will been looking at Felipe Massa's tyres when he came in and Jenson

Button, they have done a run on the softer tyre. Massa's tyres looking

good, a little trace of graining on them, nothing too desperate. On

Jenson's tyre the front tire more abused than the Ferrari front tyre.

Still a problem for McLaren getting the best out of the tyres.

Especially when you go for the softer tyre. As I said earlier,

softer tyres give you more rear grip. If you have a car that

understeers, which the McLaren does. It understeers that bit more. It

makes front tyre grainy. Sergio Perez about to complete his lap.

Let's watch him through the final corner. Really on the kerb, on the

exit of the corner, over the line he goes.

11th quickest. Button sixth, Perez 1th on a 1.36.90. He back it is off

from the engine revs. This is have to keep an eye on that, that

can mark up the tyres a lot. A couple of tweets coming in. "do you

think there has been a change in Grosjean compared to last year, no

incidents yet"? I think Grosjean has matured and he's very

determined to show he's worthy of his place in Formula One, he scored

points in the two opening Grand Prixs and certainly is building on

what he has done so far. He now needs to perhaps show that pace we

saw in flashes last year. We saw him qualify on the front row, we

saw him get podium finshes, that is what Lotus would like to see again.

Charles Pic has gone across the line. We see the GP2 champion last

year there. Now involved with Lotus himself. Got a very brief chance in

the car in winter testing when Kimi Raikkonen was ill one day before

they could get Romain Grosjean back in the car. He got his little

opportunity. I think he did a good job for the team. They were happy

with his performance. Another comment, "do you if he know if the

track was altered at the place where Mark Webber did his wheelie

from last year's race"? That was one of the images of Mark Webber,

just out of this doorner he bounced over the corner on -- corner, he

bounced over it and the car went up high and came back down again.

There has been a report on the FIA race preview that the top and back

edge of all-raceing kerbs have been rounded and shunted to stop tyre

damage but not to prevent flap. You are matching Nico lap for lap.

Lewis Hamilton will be happy hearing that. Bottas crosses the

line on the medium compound tyre, most drivers are now concentrating

on the race run. This is where we will be looking at the lap times

that he come through. But they will be much slower. Instead of looking

at fast lap, the fastest we have seen so far, a 13 --.35.3 we will

be looking at laps in the 1.40s. That is the sort of area they will

be looking at, maybe quicker in the low 1.40s. That will be their race

pace, that will be on a relatively heavy tank of fuel. Not necessarily

completely to the brim. But a heavy tank of fuel for a number of laps,

maybe 10-12, they will be studying then how the lap times differ over

the 12 laps how quickly the tyres go off, and how the balance of the

car changes and all that kind of thing. That is what the teams will

be looking for on the race run. Bianchi is the young Frenchman who

has impressed so many people so far this year. Already he has been

pushed down the order again now. Down in 19th place. But still a

good lap earlier on. We were talking about Lotus, Kimi Raikkonen

is currently second-fastest, Grosjean gros is 12th, they had a

victory in the constructors championship. We're with the boss,

Eric Boullier. How happy are you with the car this season, it seems

the car and drivers this season are at a happy pace? Obviously we had a

good start to the season. A little bit more tricky in Malaysia, we are

back on track here. We have all the conditions for the car to work well.

We are just here to surprisingly see a difference in the lap on

prime. Talk us through the changes, Romain Grosjean was disappointed to

misout on the upgrades last time out in Malaysia, this time he has

that new exhaust, it seems to be working really well? Yes every

driver it disappointed when you can't get the same upgrade as your

team-mate. But you understand the situations, sometimes it is a

logistic issue. And this is part of racing all over the world. He's

happy now he has the same car, back to normal. I have to talk to you

about team-mate, in the middle of the week we heard about you talking

about the situation in Red Bull with Sebatian Vettel and Mark

Webber, battling. You were quoted as saying you thought if somebody

went against what the boss said then they should pay the

consequences in any line of work? Some of my quotes have been

transformed or changed, it is true for me a driver, it is not a normal

employier of a company, but he's a raceer and competitor, it is a

different context. But there is a respect for the 500, 600 people

working behind the scenes. And that should not happen. Tell me though,

is there benefit for you to see Red Bull warring, that leaves a gap for

Lotus surely. It is incredibly loud, Romain Grosjean is revving up the

car he is just going out. He will go out now and that will help

things. Eric is walking back across to the pit wall. He's going to

monitor what is going on with Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean.

I know how noisy it is down there, you are doing a grand job. This

particular pit lane and the grandstand opposite it really does

bounce the sound from the V8 engines. Good to hear from Eric

Boullier and that they are back on here. This track should luet the

Lotus better. Last year they tried to go too far on the final stint of

tyres. They got the strategy a bit wrong. But Kimi Raikkonen should

have been on the podium, but as it was he was out of the points. That

was the last time he was out of the points. That is an impressive run.

He has been in the points every single race since the one here last

year. So a pretty good record by Kimi Raikkonen. Let's just see here,

Lewis Hamilton. Team radio. You want to know more. I have never

seen the tyres behave this way is what he said. You can see a lot of

marking up on the rear tyre, it mate be pick up on the outside of

that tyre. Gary, an intriguing tyre. A lot of vibration. Understood.

That's Vettel saying a lot of vibration, but he did lock up, that

presumably caused it. Lewis sounding a bit confused about what

is going on with the tyres? I will have a quick look and see if we can

see anything bad on them. When we lock at the Ferrari left front

against the McLaren left front. They look like two completely

different tyres they are the same. The car does change the

characteristics. We need to have a look at what Lewis was on about

against his team-mate, Rosberg. I will have a look and get back to

you. I also thought it was interesting when Eric was talking

to us he said it was looking like a bigger difference between the softs

and medium than expected. Alonso gained about 1.5 seconds between

his hard tyre run and his soft tyre run, Webber gained big chunk, 1.7,

Massa even more. Notness low all of them have gained quite that chunk.

It looks like a bigger gap between the two compounds of tyre than we

saw last year. A big understeer from Vijay Mallya, the front wheels

going against the direction of the tyres. The Williams are struggling

to have a balanced car. Understeer is a killer at China. The front

tyres are the ones doing all the work. It looks reasonably balanced

as he comes out of turn 13. Back down the main straight. Which car

have you been looking at Gary. What tyres are you inspecting? I have

been looking at Nico Rosberg Lewis Hamilton is still out on the track.

The left front locking better than the left front on the Ferrari or

the McLaren. Right front has a bit of tyre pick up, nothing too

dramatic. I will have a look at Lewis's car when it comes in.

you very much. Just watching ml Mallya on a very much race run here.

director. Just as the cars stream past you, we had Lewis saying the

tyres weren't doing what they expect them to do, are they doing

what you expect them to do? didn't hear that, I'm not sure what

it refers to. The medium tyre this morning was showing it could do

certainly 20-lap stint. That is borderline between two and three

stops. We have seen the soft tyre this afternoon going a bit quicker

than what we anticipated about 1.5 seconds quicker than the medium.

Which is towards the upper end of our expectation. We will see now

when they are doing the longer runs what degradation will be like. The

track is very dusty this morning. There was a lot of dust in the air.

It is clear that the track is involved.S This the first time we

have seen the soft, yellow tyres on the circuit. A lot for the teams

data had-wise to take in and analyse and work out what to do in

the race? Absolutely. It seems to be a big performance advantage, it

will be keen over the teams to do the degradation, the long run in

the last half hour, that will decide if it is a tyre they can

also use in the race. That is what we will see in the next 30 minutes.

Talking in general, your aim this year I suppose was to spice things

up even more, last year Pierre had a really God year at -- Pirelli had

a good year of making that happening. You came in for

criticism, but are you pleased with where the tyres are this year?

is just a reputation of the last two years. We were having these

discussions in the last two years and it hasn't changed. The first

eight to nine races the teams are getting to learn the tyres. That is

due to the winter testing that is done in conditions where they can't

gain much data. But that is their decision. That means they are

coming to the races with not as much information as they would

probably like. Paul I will let you get back to, thank you very much.

We are watching bot Bottas in the Williams, down in 18 at the moment.

We are into a different phase of practice now. We are very much

beginning these long tyre runs that Paul was talking about. So the

order you are looking at now probably won't change. We have more

Looking at the replay. Braking into the corner, unloaded right front

tyre, very difficult to get the balancing right on the brakes there.

Real skill required by the driver. And the tyre just giving up a bit

in the final stage of the braking process. Definitely looks as though

the soft tyre is a big chunk quicker, but the question whether

that soft tyre is actually going to be able to last any kind of stint

length when it comes to the race? It does, from what Paul Hembry is

saying, a 1.5 second gap. Gary, he said the difference between that

was 1.5, that is bigger than we are used to? It is, it is a little bit

worryingly big, these are two tyres side-by-side in the compound range.

A bit confusing. I mean if it will be a two-stop race as Nico Rosberg

did last year, you will have to do lap 12-14 on the tyre you qualified

on. Which at 1.5 secondeds it will be the soft tyre and then the hard

tire for 24 laps. That will be hard to put the tyres underneath, it is

the two or three stops. It will be a mixture through the afternoon. It

is cooling down a bit. We are getting a bit of cloud now, the

track temperature must be dropping now. That was crucial last year, if

you remember, Nico Rosberg set a lap and then the cloud came over

and no-one else was able tole challenge his lap. The track is

incred below sensitive to temperature. When we get to Q3 that

could be an interesting factor. On the radio a moment ago, Kimi

Raikkonen's race engineer said to him the option, the soft tyre isn't

locking great for the race. By which he means we are not going to

be able to do particularly long stint on the soft tyres, they would

have to concentrate their race pace on the medium. That is the evidence

that is coming to the teams as well, by the look of things. It just adds

a little more unknown into the mix, which makes it exciting. Similar

kind of race pace interestingly from Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis

Hamilton. They are running 1.43.3 on the medium compound tyre. We are

guessing the Lotus and Mercedes will be competitive. And locking at

the race pace they are looking similar at this stage. That is very,

very interesting. Button has just gone across the line at 1.45.5,

that would indicate a little slower. Again, can't always read this as

absolute, because they do run different fuel loads on their race

runs. But you do get a reasonable idea. They will all want to run a

fairly recent amount of fuel in the car so they have good material to

go on. That was a good lap by Massa in that case. 1.45, that is in the

same ball park as Hamilton and Raikkonen. Back on board with

Valtteri Bottas here. Let's see this lap time. 1.38.2. Let's have a

look at the indicators in front of us he has done five lap on those

soft tyres, not exactly a big long run in this particular case. Alonso

still on the soft tyres at the moment. That is interesting. So

Alonso not doing a harder tyre run, he's still on the soft tyres,

getting an idea on how it lasts. Gary has moved along now, at Red

Bull. What can you tell us there? I'm in front of Vettel's car, we

are seeing something we normally don't see much of, on the front, an

area in front of the rear intake, which turns the inflow in front of

the chassis, and brings it out around the side of the car. There

is a very important part for creating downforce. What we are

seeing at the moment is one of the mechanics, two of them, cutting the

stop of the board off, they are grinding it into more of a knife

edge. What happens with these parts of the body work is it sets up a

vortex, you have a very sharp corner it sets up a vortex and

generates a swirling lax in the air flow, that makes higher energy

airflow, I have never seen anyone try to create it in a garj in the

middle of a session. Especially at Red Bull. One guy working each side

of the car, they are trying to get the bars to work more efficiently.

It may be a telephone call back to Milton Keynes who have said they

have found that it works well and they have decided to doing it.

That is fantastic Gary. It shows you how hard Red Bull are always

pushing, to see it during a session, it is so unusual. Doing things

during the session, normally they take the parts off and do it

carefully around the car. It gives you an idea of how hard Red Bull

push. Presumably they will send him on his way.

Webber was wide there, on the than we expected, I wonder if that

is more marbles off line that we seen Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen.

Ferrari are also looking strong, there is no doubt about it. Alonso

currently third-fastest and hoping for a good weekend. Their third

driver is a man who has been a test driver many times in Formula One

for McLaren, and racing for HRT last year, Pedro Delaroso. Pedro, a

new role as development driver for Ferrari, how it going, how are you

enjoying it? It is good, a new team for me. But the atmosphere in the

team is very good. A lot of Italians, being Spanish, Italian is

quite similar, I'm basically finding my way inside the team. But

already I feel at home. Is it a big difference coming to a big team

like Ferrari, it has its own unique brand? Sometimes you understand

what Ferrari means, just by the fact that everything is bigger than

in any other team. However, I have been at McLaren as well, and

another great team with great people. So in a way I think both

teams are quite similar. I have to ask you about Felipe Massa's form,

he seems in great form at the moment. He has beaten Alonso in

qualifying in the last four times out, and he's leading at the moment.

He seems renewed? He's driving very well, I don't think he's driving

very well this season, I think at the end of the last year he was

already doing a great job. He likes the new tyres and the soft tires

tire as well. We could see this morning how quick he is on the soft

tyre, in the winter as well. That is the good thing about Ferrari,

that we have two very competitive drivers. It is good to fight for

the constructor, it is early days, but we have a lot to do. So far I

think that both drivers are performing at extremely high level.

This car is so much improved from this time last year, isn't it?

well I cannot say much, I have only driven this car but it is

definitely a good car. I think that we are also quite competitive in

terms of degradation, especially in the rear tyres, that makes the

whole package more competitive. will let you get back to it. Thank

you very much. Pedro de la Rosa, a veteran of some

104 Grand Prix himself. He celebrated his 100th Grand Prix

appearance in it low last year. There was a huge amount of people

turned up to -- in Italy last year. There was a huge amount of people

turned up to that. He has a huge amount of experience A lot of

testing for Ferrari, and Alonso didn't attend the first test in

Spain. Pedro de la Rosa did Alonso's stint at the first test.

It has been great for him and the team. It means he has the knowledge

and feedback from the car itself,'s spending a lot of time on the

simulator work as well, and making the most of it Which end, front or

rear? Front. You need get out of the traffic and get some clean laps.

At the moment the pace is still, compared to the other people on the

tyre, the pace is not good, it is incredible. The pace is not good it

is incredible saiz Rob Smedley. It isn't, he's doing 1.46 is Massa, he

does seem to be struggling a little bit. It is only his last lap around

was 1.46, it is not in the ball park of some of the others guys.

For whatever reason the Ferrari not so good on this particular race

stint perhaps. But he is in traffic. He was find Jean-Eric Vergne. We

are seeing if you are running behind other people on the tyres,

you put so much more heat through them, and you suffer degradation

more quickly in traffic than out there on your own. Just having a

quick look to see what Sutil was doing there as he crossed the line.

Nothing particularly dramatic. Massa has managed, interestingly,

Massa has managed a 1.42.8 on his own. It locks like in traffic he

has been struggling for pace, rather than getting clear laps.

That is why Rob Smedley was saying get yourself out of traffic. There

was a better lap there 1.43. Not struggling so much when he gets

into clear air. Paul di Resta for Force India, currently ninth-

quickest this in the session. Now focusing himself on the long run. A

quick lap last time around, I don't know if he has as much fuel in, a

1.42.7 for Paul di Resta. Force India are very happy about the way

the car is looking after its tyres and the balance remaining

consistent throughout the use of the tyres. That is so crucial. Not

only have you got to look after the tyres, but you have to hope that

the front and rear tyres go off at about the same level, otherwise you

end up with a car which has armfuls of understeer or want to spin all

the time. I think Force India have come up with a good car this year.

That is another good lap. I think something fell off Adrian

Sutil's car, whether it was a piece of rubber or carbon fibre. Cruising

in slowly. Gary, I don't know if you have a chance to look at Jenson

Button, punctured left front? come into the pits in front of me

right now, flailing around, I'm not sure if it has come from a flat

spot or puncture. I will try to get a quick look at it. Losing a set of

tyres without a bit of drama. has fire from the undertray, there

was a little bit of flame from the tea tray area I think it is OK, it

has been blown out by the fact that he's now going along. That was a

bit dramatic. As I say they have the front tyre away now. It didn't

look like it had a big flat spot on it. It could be where you were

saying earlier about the kerbs. Maybe it could be a flat spot. I

only saw the back of the tyre. had a replay, the tire may have

already deflated by the time he got the lock-up. Then we had the smoke

and flame from beneath the car. So we gather from Paul Hembry it was a

flat spot. That is what caused the puncture. Quite dramatic pictures

from McLaren. We could see the flat spot there, my Godliness w that

view of the tyre, we had another angle on it. Absolutely shredded.

Teams trying to gather data on both kinds of tyre. For example, I think

Massa, here he is, he has done some 20 lap on this set. The soft

started in 42.5 and gone out to 46. If this was the race you are still

doing some of the fastest lap times to be perfectly honest, even with

less than good tyres. That is nice, useful information for us. Massa

has done 21 laps, apart from the worry about his lap times in

traffic, in fact they are looking very good on these medium compound

tyres. That was an interesting comment. That Alonso had gone out

from a 1.42-1.46 on the soft tyre, that is a huge loss of performance?

The front tyre definitely does go away, once it starts to happen it

eats up so much time especially with the long cornerers. I have

been watching come -- and corner, and I have been watching the rear

overstep is mass yi. It is all done in lap time f they are happy we

will see on Sunday afternoon. will depend on temperatures, we are

expecting weather to be similar. The temperatures have dropped from

the start of the session. Temperatures at 22. The wind has

changed direction, it has gone 180 degrees. But there isn't a great

deal of breeze out there. It looks still across the track to find any

flags fluttering in the breeze, there aren't many. It looks pretty

still. Sebatian Vettel is on track. He has done a 1.42.6, he is in the

ball park, definitely with the race pace, you would be surprised if he

wasn't. Raikkonen has done a 1.42, that is a good lap from him. Now

they are generally coming towards the end of these lap run. Let's see

Vettel has done ten laps on this set of tyres, you would expect the

lap time to be effective. Raikkonen has got a soft tyre on at the

moment. I guess that is irrelevant. Raikkonen is doing. Vettel into

turn one. The road climbs a bit there. This is Esteban Gutierrez.

Not in the Sauber at the moment obviously. Where is he. He's 13th

in the outright positions in this session. His team-mate, Nico

Hulkenberg down in 17th interestingly enough. And Chilton,

they did get the car back then. That was interesting, I didn't

think they would have been able to get the car back. They obviously

did, it is pulling off the road again. Marussia having a bit of a

tough time of it here. They did get the car back. I didn't think they

would be able to. He has gone and stopped again. If they got it back

and they were able to run it again, obviously it wasn't the engine

itself has failed, it must absence sor or electronics problem, giving

it a signal to say there is no oil pressure. The same problem again

probably, better to recognise the same problem twice today than

tomorrow. Massa and Alonso has come and put on the soft tyre, the

medium tyre did look OK. I'm watching Alonso coming down the

pitlane, he has the soft tyre on the car and he's putting on the

medium. Massa's run, he did over 21 laps for Massa on the last set of

tyres, the medium tyre will hold up well in the race, there is no doubt.

The question is how far they will be able to go on the soft tire.

There was Chilton coming past Perez. Now do we see the car suddenly slow

down, no fluid coming out the back of the Marussia and on to the

camera lens, this was Webber a bit further behind. And they were all

getting in each other's way. But again there was definitely fluid

from the back of the Marussia. Then suddenly you saw Max Chilton slow

down. That could be much more than an electrical problem this time,

I'm afraid. There was definitely something coming out of that

Marussia the back of it, that was going on to the camera lens on

Sergio Perez's car. It made Perez slow down. Because of that he held

up Webber. It all got a bit complicated. The Marussia is at the

side of the track, it won't be as straight forward as we thought?

it is better to go out there and have the problem again today than

tomorrow morning. Just watch Vettel coming through and putting on a

different nose on the car. I'm not sure what he has done in lap time.

I haven't been able to look at it. He does looks a though he's

fighting it a little bit. He's not just sort of like the cream rising

to the top like normal. He's fighting, he's trying a different

nose on the car to see if there is something wrong with the and wing

that was on the car. It is the sort of thing you do when having a

battle with yourself to find the best balance for the car. Keep an

eye on him in the next couple of laps. We will do. Obviously a lot

of work going on at Red Bull, more bits of rubber being thrown up in

the air by Kimi Raikkonen for Lotus. Big chunks of Rubinho -- that is

surprising. -- of rubber, that is surprising. Lewis Hamilton is on

medium compound tyres with a lot of laps, some 25 laps. I'm not sure if

there is a long run or he has put them back on. Interesting that he's

on a set of tires toirs that have done so many lapse -- tyres that

have done so many laps. Maybe they are gathering some more data to see

what happens when you get to the very limit of the tyres. Marussia

think it is an oil pressure problem, with oil pushed out the back of the

car. Louis you are the current longest runner on the tyre. Let's

try to get a lap together. current longest runner on the tyre,

this medium tyre seems to be able to go a long, long way. Which

perhaps will bring the race back to being a two-stop, even if there is

a short first stint on the soft tyre, we will have to wait and see.

Gary will tell us more on that when he has done more calculation, I'm

sure. 25 laps by Lewis Hamilton on the current set of tyres, that is

an impressive number. If we think how Mercedes locked after their

tyres last year, they seem to have a bit of a -- looked after their

tires toors last year, they seem to have a trick in the Shanghai

circuit of making them last the distance.

Alonso is on a set that did 13 laps more, running on the soft tyre

earlier. In the ball mark there across the line. Those tyres

haven't done as many lap. Hamilton did a 1.44.6 on his tyres that have

done so many laps. I think that's pretty good, holding up well. Gary,

coming back to that. If Hamilton is able to do that on tyres that have

done 25, 26 laps, that has to mean the medium is in good shape here?

It does really to be honest. It locks pretty impressive. As we know

on a Sunday and after Saturday and Sunday and the track gets better,

that little bit more rubber in it. That is a pretty good long run. As

you say it is heading towards the two-stop race, for some people any

way for sure. The problem seems to be that the front tyre is wearing

out. It does mean that you can live with that, to be honest. It is

whenever the rear of the car gets snapy and horrible and the traction

gets bad. That is the sort of thing that is difficult to live with.

Absolutely, if you run off track, mistake there from Hamilton,

perhaps he has finally reached the end of any grip in these tyres. He

just makes a little error up there at turn 12. Watch the rest of the

lap, run it is over the kerb slightly. But as I say, as we heard

from his race engineer, these tyres have done a longer stint than

anybody else. Really preparing for the race. He has been passed by the

Ferrari of Alonso there. This is what Mercedes work on in -- worked

on in malaiseia, they didn't have enough race prep at the beginning

of the season. Hamilton went in and said we need the race runs and see

what we have underneath us. They are doing that, a long race run,

1.46.8, the performance going away now. He has done 27 laps on the

tyres. Still very, very impressive. We are almost in the final moments

of this second practice session. Ferrari might be top of the tree in

terms of outright lap time t looks a though it is as close as ever

amongst the likes of Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull in terms of

race pace and Lotus. It does looks a though we could be in for a very,

very tough race once again. A very competitive race, which is what we

all look forward to, of course. Vettel has done a 1.42.3 on mediums

that have done 41 lap, Vettel is looking to be competitive, as we

might have expected. Nobody seems to have a good jump. Three or four

tenths second of advantage, it is tiny amount, we have seen that

throughout the season so far. Let's not forget, Adrian Sutil, leading

the laps in Australia for so long with Vettel and the like behind him.

And yet able to maintain a great pace. So there is no doubt the

field has closed up and qualifying again tomorrow is going to be very,

very tight ip seed. But, you are going to have to use -- indeed. But

you are going to have to use a soft or a medium, with such a tight gap

between them. To go through qualifying on the medium tyre, you

won't make it through to the next stage. Tyre management and how you

use them will be as crucial as ever when it comes to that all-important

session. Don't forget qualifying live on BBC One from 6.00 in the

morning. We will be bringing you absolutely all the news, all the

latest information and then every single session as it happens to see

who can try to take pole position in China. Only a few seconds away

from the checkered flag coming out. Will Massa get one more lap in? I

think he is. One more across the line before the checkered flag

comes out. He will get another lap in, the checkered flag is out.

Alonso, interestingly, did a 1.42.49 on mediums that did 15 laps.

Massa locking good, once out of traffic, very competitive. On a set

of soft tyres now you can see. A little bit of a lock up that left

front. A set of soft tyres that have already done 10 lap, Ferrari

trying to see can we do anything with soft tyres. A little sign from

Rob Smedley there, I'm not sure what that means. They want to get

this extra data on the soft tyre, you can see the car running wide

through turn seven. Struggling a little bit as he comes down to turn

nine. He will look to complete this lap. He has been fastest in the

session. Earlier on when they first put the soft tyres on T does looks

a though Ferrari have got good race pace, but the big worry is how many

laps they can actually do on the first stint. They will have to the

top ten having to start the race on the tyre they qualify with, and

it's likely to be the soft compound what it does mean is once again

those guys who qualify 11th and 12th might anybody good shape.

Maybe they start the race on the medium compound tyre and at the end

of the race throw soft tyres on when the car is at the lightest,

maybe that will be the strategy to work. We will wait and see. There

is the checkered flag and everybody now finishing off their laps in

what has been a relatively trouble- free day of practice. We have seen

the odd little mishap, a puncture for Jenson Button in this

particular session, after getting a flat spot. We have seen one or two

people locking up, a bit more than they would like to. McLaren looking

in reasonable shape. Button was doing low 1.42s on medium that is

had done 16 laps. Encouraging for McLaren. Their race pace has been

better than qualifying pace. That might be the case again. Maybe they

will have sorted out qualifying a bit more as well. No doubt about it,

Mercedes are looking strong here in China as we saw last year. But

Lotus are in the hunt, so are Ferrari, and you can never discount

Red Bull, they are the World Championship leaders. We can learn

anything from today, and it will be mighty competitive. Just try to

accelerate out of the corner. With throttle levels similar to what you

use at the race start. Gary you have to have say that, as Kimi

Raikkonen is coming in now. It is the Mercedes and the Ferrari that

look most comfortable in that session, Vettel still a bit down,

session, Vettel still a bit down, you can't read into that. It is

still only P2 and a lot of work to be done tomorrow morning, and the

field can be put down to a low level for qalfoiing. Looking at it,

the red redoes seem to be thrashing, you can see when they are in

control and when they are not quite in control. What I'm seeing today

they are in a bit of a thrash. Massa in Ferrari a good lap, a very

competitive time. It was very driverable as well. Impressive on

the longer runs? On the longer runs, Alonso the same, the longer runs

were pretty God. A session with a bit of everything. We will be back