Practice Two – McLaren lead rain-hit session

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button set the pace early on in Friday afternoon’s practice session in Melbourne with 1m 25.801s and 1m 26.076s respectively. And, after a rain shower, the closest anyone got to them was Mark Webber who vaulted up to third place for Red Bull with 1m 26.248s.

That displaced Michael Schumacher, who had been the first man to get going once the track had dried out again. The German whistled his Mercedes round in 1m 26.511s, ahead of the impressive Vitaly Petrov who recorded 1m 26.732s for Renault. It was the first time that Schumacher has been ahead of team mate Nico Rosberg this season.