Australian GP, ​​Free Practice 2: Hamilton ahead of everyone, the rain comes

McLaren Mercedes double in the second free practice session of the Australian Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button made the most of the little dry time available before the rain arrived. The light shower started five minutes before the start of the session and turned into real rain during the car installation lap. There then followed 20 minutes of calm until the rain stopped allowing the cars to return to the track for 15 minutes of dry conditions.

Nico Rosberg was the first to set a good time before the two McLarens of Button and Hamilton took the lead. The world champion lapped in 1.26.076 but was then beaten by his teammate in 1.25.801.

The rain then fell again, putting an end to the battle. Alguersuari was the only one to stay on the track but a scare at the last corner convinced him to return.

Then with less than ten minutes to go, again in the dry, Mark Webber and Michael Schumacher moved into third and fourth place. Vettel was also improving his time but spun at Turn 6 when he put his left side tires on the grass under braking. The German finished 16th fastest.

Petrov, Buemi, Sutil, Liuzzi, Barrichello and Rosberg complete the top 10. The Ferraris missed the best opportunity to run in the dry, finishing in 15th position with Fernando Alonso and 17th with Felipe Massa. Another difficult day for the new teams: Timo Glock missed most of the session due to a gearbox problem on his Virgin while his partner from Grassi did not take part in the tests due to a problem with his telemetry. Gearbox problems also for Chandhok's HRT while Bruno Senna was stopped by a fuel pressure problem.

Things went better for Lotus: Kovalainen was 18th, Trulli 20th but struggling with engine mapping problems.

Pos Driver Team Lap Time
 1. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:25.801 13 
 2. Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:26.076 + 0.275 16 
 3. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:26.248 + 0.447 22 
 4. Schumacher Mercedes 1:26.511 + 0.710 16 
 5. Petrov Renault 1:26.732 + 0.931 26 
 6. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:26.832 + 1.031 29 
 7. Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:26.834 + 1.033 22 
 8. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1:26.835 + 1.034 17 
 9. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:26.904 + 1.103 25 
10. Rosberg Mercedes 1:26.956 + 1.155 22 
11. Kubica Renault 1:27.108 + 1.307 28 
12. de la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari 1:27.108 + 1.307 25 
13. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1:27.455 + 1.654 23 
14. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 1:27.545 + 1.744 25 
15. Alonso Ferrari 1:29.025 + 3.224 20 
16. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:29.134 + 3.333 19 
17. Massa Ferrari 1:29.591 + 3.790 21 
18. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 1:29.860 + 4.059 15 
19. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:30.510 + 4.709 43 
20. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 1:30.695 + 4.894 17 
21. Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1:32.117 + 6.316 9  
22. di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 2  
23. Chandhok HRT-Cosworth 1  
24. Senna HRT-Cosworth