Rosberg heads Friday practice 2

Nico Rosberg in Friday Practice 2 in Bahrain

Mercedes power continued their assault at the top of the timesheets today, with Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes on top.

Mercedes-powered cars took the top 4 spaces on the timesheets, with Hamilton, Schumacher and Button behind Rosberg. Meanwhile, Sebastien Buemi got no running with his Toro Rosso due to a problem, as well as Karun Chandhok, who also had technical issues.

It was another poor session for Red Bull. After slow times in FP1, the team were looking to improve in the afternoon. But, Sebastian Vettel was caught out twice in the final corner, while Webber was sidelined for most of the session because of a driveshaft problem.

Sauber improved a bit from this morning, as both of their drivers got 10th and 11th best times respectively. Their tyre managment seemed pretty good today, so it seems that Bridgestone’s analysis was correct.

Lotus established themselves as the quickest of the three new teams today, with Trulli and Kovalainen taking 18th and 19th places, with Glock and Di Grassi of Virgin just behind them. The fact that Timo Glock got even a half-respectible time was impressive, seeing as he only got 3 laps in. HRT improved slightly from FP1. Although Chanhok has still yet to set a lap, Bruno Senna managed 17 laps, although he was 11 seconds off the pace. But, near the end of the session, his car lurched and skidded off the road at the heavy-braking Turn 1. It later turned out that a wheelnut had broken off.

Times from Friday practice 2:

Position	Driver	Team	Fastest lap	Difference	# of laps
1	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes GP	1.55.409		23
2	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1.55.854	0.445	22
3	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes GP	1.55.903	0.494	23
4	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1.56.076	0.667	28
5	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	1.56.459	1.05	18
6	Nico Hulkenberg	Williams-Cosworth	1.56.501	1.092	26
7	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1.56.555	1.146	30
8	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	1.56.750	1.341	26
9	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1.57.140	1.731	25
10	Pedro de la Rosa	Sauber-Ferrari	1.57.255	1.846	24
11	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	1.57.352	1.943	27
12	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1.57.361	1.952	29
13	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	1.57.452	2.043	21
14	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Force India-Mercedes	1.57.833	2.424	29
15	Robert Kubica	Renault	1.58.155	2.746	29
16	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1.59.799	4.39	31
17	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	2.00.444	5.035	12
18	Heikki Kovalanien	Lotus-Cosworth	2.00.873	5.464	23
19	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Cosworth	2.00.990	5.581	14
20	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	2.02.037	6.628	3
21	Lucas di Grassi	Virgin-Cosworth	2.02.188	6.779	21
22	Bruno Senna	HRT-Cosworth	2.06.968	11.559	17

Analysis of the two sessions today should be up later tonight.