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Chinese GP: Felipe Massa sets the pace in second practice

Felipe Massa put Ferrari on top in the second free practice session for the Chinese Grand Prix at Shanghai

Runaway morning pacesetter Nico Rosberg had to settle for fourth this time, as Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso took second and third places.

Initially Rosberg and Mercedes resumed their commanding morning form by setting the initial pace, while team-mate Lewis Hamilton was next up.

The soft tyre runs started early, with Mark Webber switching from the medium rubber just 20 minutes in.

He used his new Pirellis to outpace Rosberg by 0.6s and claim first place, although the German soon retaliated with his own soft-tyre dash and got back in front.

But the second half of the afternoon was all about Ferrari and Massa.

A 1m35.340s from Massa on the soft tyres put him in front, and that was where he stayed.

More impressively, he maintained his speed better than most on his subsequent long run with medium tyres, on a day when radio complaints about graining were perhaps even more prevalent than usual.

Rosberg was eventually pushed down to fourth place as Raikkonen emerged as Massa's closest rival, getting within 0.152s.

Fernando Alonso increased Ferrari's satisfaction with third place, albeit 0.4s off his team-mate.

Rosberg and Webber completed the top five, while Jenson Button showed encouraging form for McLaren again in sixth, ahead of Hamilton.

Sebastian Vettel was only 10th, behind Force India duo Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta.

Sutil's session included a half-spin at Turn 8 in which his car arrived at the corner already broadside.

The German managed to stop the Force India on the asphalt run-off, unlike Sergio Perez in a near-identical incident minutes earlier. In that case the McLaren made it all the way over the gravel trap and lightly nudged the barriers before crawling back to the pits.

Perez, who had crashed in the pit entry at the end of practice one, later made it back out and was 11th.

His team-mate Button did not have a trouble-free afternoon either, pitting with a delaminated left-front tyre following a huge lock-up into the hairpin.

In the backmarker pack, Jules Bianchi impressed again as an early soft tyre run temporarily got him as high as 11th. He still ended up back in his habitual 19th place.

His Marussia team-mate Max Chilton had a horrible afternoon. The Briton stopped on track with oil pressure problems during the first runs, later rejoined and then had to park out on the circuit again.

Caterham's Giedo van der Garde was the other man to have adventures, catching a high-speed spin into Turn 1 before it could become a full rotation.

Pos Driver                Team                  Time      Gap        Laps
 1. Felipe Massa          Ferrari               1m35.340s             32
 2. Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault         1m35.492s  + 0.152s   32
 3. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari               1m35.755s  + 0.415s   30
 4. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes              1m35.819s  + 0.479s   35
 5. Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault      1m36.092s  + 0.752s   31
 6. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes      1m36.432s  + 1.092s   29
 7. Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes              1m36.496s  + 1.156s   39
 8. Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes  1m36.514s  + 1.174s   32
 9. Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes  1m36.595s  + 1.255s   33
10. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault      1m36.791s  + 1.451s   27
11. Sergio Perez          McLaren-Mercedes      1m36.940s  + 1.600s   16
12. Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault         1m36.963s  + 1.623s   31
13. Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber-Ferrari        1m37.103s  + 1.763s   22
14. Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m37.206s  + 1.866s   39
15. Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m38.127s  + 2.787s   34
16. Valtteri Bottas       Williams-Renault      1m38.185s  + 2.845s   18
17. Nico Hulkenberg       Sauber-Ferrari        1m38.211s  + 2.871s   32
18. Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault      1m38.276s  + 2.936s   34
19. Jules Bianchi         Marussia-Cosworth     1m38.725s  + 3.385s   29
20. Giedo van der Garde   Caterham-Renault      1m39.271s  + 3.931s   21
21. Charles Pic           Caterham-Renault      1m39.814s  + 4.474s   27
22. Max Chilton           Marussia-Cosworth     1m43.227s  + 7.887s    5

AUTOSPORT Chinese GP coverage:

FP1 FP2 FP3 Qualifying Race Gallery Live commentary Official quotes

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