Paffett fastest on second day of test

The DTM driver completed 80 laps of the circuit and set a best time of 1m18.718s - the fastest lap of the test so far - shortly after 1pm.

Light rain during the middle of the afternoon left the track greasy, with lap times dropping off by around six seconds.

Track conditions did improve during the final hour though, during which time Nico Hulkenberg (Williams) leaped up to second in the order with a time 0.466 seconds slower than Paffett, who is due to share driving duties with Oliver Turvey on Thursday.

Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo continued to impress with the fastest time of the morning and the third quickest of the day, as the Australian ran a shorter programme than on Tuesday.

Paul di Resta was again in scintillating form as he set the third quickest time of the morning, before handing his Force India over to JR Hildebrand for the afternoon. Hulkenberg's late charge pushed the Briton down to fourth.

Esteban Gutierrez was next up for Sauber, the Mexican four places ahead of his former Formula 3 Euro Series team-mate Jules Bianchi, who again drove for Ferrari and focused on long runs.

Mike Conway and Marcus Ericsson again split the driving duties for Brawn, and were split by only 0.218s by the end of the day in sixth and seventh.

Renault ran Chinese driver Ho-Pin Tung during the morning and Brazilian Lucas di Grassi during the afternoon. GP2 race-winner Di Grassi was the quicker by 0.694s.

There was only one stoppage all day, caused when Mirko Bortolotti's Toro Rosso stopped out on the track after half an hour after he accidentally pushed a button that prevented his gearbox from functioning.

The car then spent a long time in the pits during the late morning owing to an unrelated technical problem.

Pos  Driver      Car          Time       Gap       Laps
 1.  Paffett     McLaren      1m18.718s            80
 2.  Hulkenberg  Williams     1m19.184s  + 0.466s  94
 3.  Ricciardo   Red Bull     1m19.243s  + 0.526s  93
 4.  Di Resta    Force India  1m19.411s  + 0.693s  58
 5.  Gutierrez   Sauber       1m20.190s  + 1.472s  68
 6.  Conway      Brawn        1m20.222s  + 1.504s  83
 7.  Ericsson    Brawn        1m20.440s  + 1.722s  37
 8.  Hildebrand  Force India  1m20.517s  + 1.799s  50
 9.  Bianchi     Ferrari      1m20.585s  + 1.868s  113
10.  Di Grassi   Renault      1m20.898s  + 2.180s  55
11.  Tung        Renault      1m21.492s  + 2.774s  67
12.  Bortolotti  Toro Rosso   1m21.761s  + 3.043s  69