Mercedes and Ferrari closely matched in FP2

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F1 Grand Prix, GP China, Shanghai International Ciruitcn

The second practice session at Shanghai saw Lewis Hamilton edge out two Finns, the fastest of which was Kimi Räikkönen. The Ferrari driver was just 0.007s down on the pace setter, with their respective team mates also incredibly closely matched.

The top 4 drivers ended the session covered within 0.108s.

Behind the leading quartet, Max Verstappen ended up 5th fastest, 3 tenths down. He stayed ahead of both Renaults and Magnussen in the Haas. Daniel Ricciardo was 9th fastest, an unusually low position for the Australian. Fernando Alonso completed the top 10 thanks to the second Haas of Grosjean being out of order in 19th position.

As the session remained dry until the last 10 minutes, drivers could all complete a large number of laps. This included Stoffel Vandoorne, who still managed 22 laps before parking his car alongside the track with a suspected loose rear wheel.

Even when the rain eventually arrived, several drivers - namely Perez, Ocon, Gasly, Hartley, Ericsson and Alonso - still opted to venture out on track on the intermediates to get a feel for the conditions.

Results

Pos.No.DriverCarTimeGapLaps
144Lewis HamiltonMercedes1:33.482-26
27Kimi RäikkönenFerrari1:33.489+0.007s26
377Valtteri BottasMercedes1:33.515+0.033s27
45Sebastian VettelFerrari1:33.590+0.108s27
533Max VerstappenRed Bull Racing Tag Heuer1:33.823+0.341s26
627Nico HulkenbergRenault1:34.313+0.831s30
720Kevin MagnussenHaas Ferrari1:34.458+0.976s26
855Carlos SainzRenault1:34.473+0.991s28
93Daniel RicciardoRed Bull Racing Tag Heuer1:34.557+1.075s26
1014Fernando AlonsoMcLaren Renault1:34.632+1.150s23
1111Sergio PerezForce India Mercedes1:34.792+1.310s30
1210Pierre GaslyScuderia Toro Rosso Honda1:34.849+1.367s33
1331Esteban OconForce India Mercedes1:34.874+1.392s30
142Stoffel VandoorneMcLaren Renault1:35.163+1.681s22
1528Brendon HartleyScuderia Toro Rosso Honda1:35.333+1.851s37
1635Sergey SirotkinWilliams Mercedes1:35.340+1.858s31
179Marcus EricssonSauber Ferrari1:35.624+2.142s29
1816Charles LeclercSauber Ferrari1:35.916+2.434s26
198Romain GrosjeanHaas Ferrari1:36.471+2.989s26
2018Lance StrollWilliams Mercedes1:37.147+3.665s19