Webber stays on top in Malaysia

Red Bull and McLaren in a class of their own

Preparations for the Malaysian Grand Prix resumed this afternoon on a now really hot Sepang circuit.

Before the track reopened, the Lotus Renault team announced it wouldn’t take part in this second session until it had not fully understood the causes of its morning’s problems – which may have something to do with suspension uprights issues.

Lewis Hamilton did a short run to start with, and set the early pace, while the Red Bull team concentrated on longer runs and gathered data on the Pirelli tyres in these grueling conditions.

With just twenty minutes gone, Pastor Maldonado took on a set of soft tyres and popped up on top of the timesheet with a time marginally faster than Hamilton’s benchmark. His teammate Barrichello moved up to P3 shortly afterwards and both Williams mixed it with the McLarens in the first part of the session.

Ferrari then joined the fun with Alonso up in 3rd place and Massa in 6th position.

Michael Schumacher had a go on the soft tyres before the halfway point and took over at the front. Toro Rosso’s Alguersuari, also running with soft tyres, set the second fastest time. This is the moment Red Bull chose to send its drivers back on track.

Both were on soft tyres and reasserted their authority. Webber went fastest, with his teammate hot on his heels. The Australian was a full second clear of 3rd placed Schumacher. He went straight back in the pits after his short run while Vettel stayed out for a couple more laps.

Tonio Liuzzi brought out the yellow flags as he parked his HRT out of Turn 9.

Shortly after the halfway point, Petrov headed out in his Renault for his first outing following his accident in FP1.

Yellow flags were soon waving again as Maldonado spun his Williams in the pitlane entry. While the marshals were recovering the Venezuelan’s FW33, Jenson Button embarked on a flying lap and ended just five thousandths of a second shy off Webber’s fastest time.

Teams concentrated on heavy-fuel runs in the final part of the session, evaluating the degradation of the tyres. The Red Bulls and McLarens seemed to be matched on pace.

Webber held on to top spot with Button 2nd fastest. Hamilton was 3rd ahead of Vettel. Only two tenths of a second covered the top four, while 5th-placed Schumacher was a full second down on Vettel. He was one thousandth of a second fastest than Ferrari’s Massa.

Rosberg, Heidfeld, Alonso and Alguersuari completed the top ten.

Jérôme d’Ambrosio couldn’t take part in this session as the Virgin team worked hard on his car following a suspension failure in FP1.