Button quickest once again

Early-season pacesetter Jenson Button was quickest once again in Friday's second free practice session for the Chinese Grand Prix.

Championship leader sets the pace in Shanghai

Early-season pacesetter Jenson Button was quickest once again in Friday's second free practice session for the Chinese Grand Prix. The Brawn GP driver, who currently leads the world championship and is chasing his third straight win this weekend, followed up a morning's work that saw him go second quickest by leaping to the top of the timesheets in the afternoon with a time of one minute 35.679 seconds. Williams driver Nico Rosberg was just 0.025s behind in second place, while Button's team-mate Rubens Barrichello was third overall ahead of the Red Bull pair of Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel. However, after setting the quickest time in the opening 90 minute-long session, world champion Lewis Hamilton could only manage the 13th fastest time in the afternoon. Both the Brawn GP and Williams teams, together with Toyota, head into the weekend buoyed by Wednesday's decision of the FIA's International Court of Appeal to rule the controversial double diffuser designs on their cars legal. Given that the diffusers are said to give the teams a clear performance advantage over their rivals, the speed of the Red Bull cars - which do not use the design - is all the more impressive. Despite being behind Red Bull, Toyota nevertheless enjoyed a good session as Jarno Trulli finished sixth and Timo Glock eighth, with Williams' Kazuki Nakajima sandwiched in-between. McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen and Sebastien Bourdais of Toro Rosso completed the top 10.

Disappointing

The second session again proved disappointing for Ferrari, however, as Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen could only manage 12th and 14th quickest respectively. With teams now playing catch-up in the wake of the FIA's precedent, it was McLaren who appeared first with new modifications - Hamilton taking to the track with both a new diffuser and a revised front wing on his MP4-24 car. There was evidence of improvement during the morning when the 24-year-old went fastest with a time of 1:37.334, his team-mate Kovalainen also up in fourth place overall. However, Hamilton dropped down the order in the afternoon as the times improved markedly - Button's best being over 1.6s faster than the time his countryman had earlier managed. It was Barrichello who went quickest early in the second session, the Brazilian setting a time of 1:35.995s just under an hour into the session before quickly improving by 0.114s. He looked to have held on to top spot but his team-mate made a late charge to clock a time of 1:35.679s, with Rosberg also moving up the order during the closing stages. Despite setting the fastest time of the day, Button later said more work could be done to improve the balance of his car. "The balance of the car really improved over the last couple of runs today after we had been struggling a little to find the right set-up early on," he said. "We completed a great deal of work with the two very different tyre compounds to establish what condition they would be in after longer runs. "There seemed to be a lot of traffic on track today so my main concern was finding some clear air. It was a useful first day of running but we still have some work to do tomorrow to be happy with the balance for qualifying." After falling down the order as the day progressed, Hamilton said any modifications to his car would take time to have a positive effect. "I don't think we've made any new start or anything, we're still working on the car trying to improve it," he said. "Today it was a slight step forward but we've got a lot more to do...It's the same as always, the guys are enthusiastic and determined to get back to the top." Chinese Grand Prix, Friday practice session two: 1. Jenson Button (Britain) Brawn - Mercedes 1 min 35.679secs
2. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Williams - Toyota 1:35.704
3. Rubens Barrichello (Brazil) Brawn - Mercedes 1:35.881
4. Mark Webber (Australia) Red Bull - Renault 1:36.105
5. Sebastian Vettel (Germany) Red Bull - Renault 1:36.167
6. Jarno Trulli (Italy) Toyota 1:36.217
7. Kazuki Nakajima (Japan) Williams - Toyota 1:36.377
8. Timo Glock (Germany) Toyota 1:36.548
9. Heikki Kovalainen (Finland) McLaren - Mercedes 1:36.674
10. Sebastien Bourdais (France) Toro Rosso - Ferrari 1:36.800
11. Adrian Sutil (Germany) Force India-Mercedes 1:36.829
12. Felipe Massa (Brazil) Ferrari 1:36.847
13. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) McLaren - Mercedes 1:36.941
14. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Ferrari 1:37.054
15. Sebastien Buemi (Switzerland) Toro Rosso - Ferrari 1:37.219
16. Nelson Piquet (Brazil) Renault 1:37.273
17. Robert Kubica (Poland) BMW Sauber 1:37.491
18. Nick Heidfeld (Germany) BMW Sauber 1:37.544
19. Fernando Alonso (Spain) Renault 1:37.638
20. Giancarlo Fisichella (Italy) Force India-Mercedes 1:37.750