Practice Two: Bulls dominance continues

Red Bull continued to dominate in Brazil on Friday as Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber were once again the pick of the drivers

Vettel finished the session in the P1 slot and, for the second successive session, he edged team-mate Mark Webber. This time, though, the gap was only 0.104s as opposed to the half a second he was up by in Practice One.

Fernando Alonso came back from his earlier woes to set the third best time, 0.360s behind Vettel, while Lewis Hamilton was fourth quickest.

As for the fifth chap in the Drivers' Championship, Jenson Button, he was P7, finishing behind Felipe Massa and Robert Kubica.

Report: The track temperature was sitting at 44'C as Friday's second practice got underway with a bit of cloud cover building over the Interlagos circuit. Christian Klien was the first out, crossing the line with a 1:19.965 but was soon down to a 1:18.504 before he was dropped by Kamui Kobayashi, who was back on track after crashing as a result of a puncture in Practice One.

Nick Heidfeld took over at the top only to lose out to Nico Hulkenberg before retaining the position. The two changed positions a few times, although their tussle ended when Lewis Hamilton went quickest with a 1:13.603. Jenson Button claimed fourth place before he was dropped by Robert Kubica. Michael Schumacher improved to second place only for Hamilton to further his advantage, which was now sitting at 0.770s. Button climbed to third while Kubica moved back up into second place.

It was all change as Mark Webber took the P1 slot with a 1:12.923 and Felipe Massa second. The Brazilian, though, quickly fell to fourth place as Hamilton improved to P2 and Fernando Alonso went third only for Massa to take the position off his Ferrari team-mate. Schumacher remained fifth ahead of Kubica, Heidfeld and Button.

Webber extended his lead at the top to a 1:12.387 as his team-mate Sebastian Vettel slotted into second place, 0.5s off the pace. Are we on for another Red Bull 1-2? Vettel continued lapping and although he closed the gap he was not able to dislodge Webber. Button ventured out again, climbing to fifth place while Kubica and Schumacher traded blows in a battle for seventh place. The Polish driver eventually won. The two Bulls also returned to the action, however, there were no changes in positions as the drivers put in the laps.

Massa had a small moment at Decida do Lago, running wide before continuing on his way. No improvement for the Ferrari driver, who pitted after two more laps. Heikki Kovalainen was another to run wide. Heidfeld, using the softer option tyres, leapt up to fifth place, 0.8s of the pace. Massa on his super softs also improved, taking third place. But seconds later the Brazilian stopped out on track, bringing out the yellow flags.

Meanwhile, Webber put his soft tyres to great use, lowering the benchmark time to a 1:12.072. Alonso slotted into third place behind the Bulls with Hamilton taking fourth. Button improved to seventh, the slowest of the Championship contenders. Alonso finally split the Bulls, second quickest with a 1:12.328. Vettel headed out and found the edge over his team-mate, taking the P1 slot by 0.104s.

The final few minutes saw the entire field out on track with Alguersuari having a spin, Kobayashi sliding, Schumacher taking off Alguersuari's front wing and Vettel finishing quickest of all.

Times
01. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:11.968 28 laps
02. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:12.072 + 0.104 34 laps
03. Alonso Ferrari 1:12.328 + 0.360 36 laps
04. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:12.656 + 0.688 33 laps
05. Massa Ferrari 1:12.677 + 0.709 19 laps
06. Kubica Renault 1:12.882 + 0.914 37 laps
07. Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:13.206 + 1.238 33 laps
08. Heidfeld Sauber-Ferrari 1:13.222 + 1.254 40 laps
09. Rosberg Mercedes 1:13.333 + 1.365 34 laps
10. Schumacher Mercedes 1:13.346 + 1.378 36 laps
11. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:13.520 + 1.552 37 laps
12. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1:13.610 + 1.642 41 laps
13. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 1:13.725 + 1.757 39 laps
14. Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:13.741 + 1.773 32 laps
15. Petrov Renault 1:13.818 + 1.850 26 laps
16. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1:14.045 + 2.077 37 laps
17. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:14.304 + 2.336 33 laps
18. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:14.578 + 2.610 37 laps
19. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 1:14.984 + 3.016 47 laps
20. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 1:15.101 + 3.133 43 laps
21. di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 1:15.433 + 3.465 35 laps
22. Senna HRT-Cosworth 1:16.070 + 4.102 42 laps
23. Klien HRT-Cosworth 1:16.082 + 4.114 38 laps
24. Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1:16.150 + 4.182 35 laps

Source: Planet-F1