Schumacher fastest in Australia GP 2012 Free Practice 2

Michael Schumacher set the fastest time of a wet/dry second practice for the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.

Schumacher set a best time of 1:29.183 with the very last lap of the session to pip Nico Hulkenberg's Force India as Mercedes showed some of the pace that is gained from the legal F-Duct system it has pioneered. The drying track meant times were tumbling throughout the final 15 minutes as drivers went out on slick tyres and exploited the improving track conditions.

Sergio Perez was third in the Sauber, a full second slower than Schumacher and 0.1s ahead of Fernando Alonso, with Ferrari the first to go out on intermediate tyres in the middle of the session. A torrential downpour about an hour before FP2 left the track soaking wet with a lot of standing water, and only a few tentative laps from both Saubers and Toro Rossos were possible in the opening 20 minutes.

After some intermediate lap times, there was a break while all the teams waited for the track to dry out a little more before the hectic ending to the session as many ventured out on slicks. Kamui Kobayashi set the fifth fastest time with a 1:30.709 as Sauber looked strong, despite running wide at the final corner at the end of the session and fishtailing before half spinning on the main straight.

Sixth quickest was Paul di Resta, underlining the Force India pace though he was over two seconds slower than Schumacher. Felipe Massa was seventh after recovering from his spin in FP1 to cover 14 laps.

Heikki Kovalainen was an encouraging eighth for Caterham, ahead of Nico Rosberg, the Red Bull pair of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber and an impressive 12th for Timo Glock as he searched for track time and setup options in the Marussia.

Morning pace-setter Jenson Button was only 15th quickest in the McLaren, with team-mate Lewis Hamilton one place behind him after Hamilton remained in the garage for most of the session. Following a similar approach was Kimi Raikkonen, who only completed 7 laps late in the day.

Pedro de la Rosa made it out on track after his car wasn't ready in time for FP1, but he only completed one installation lap before a hydraulic problem confined him to the pits for the rest of the session, while Narain Karthikeyan also stopped out on track after the chequered flag with a similar issue.

Pos  Driver                Team                    Time               Laps
 1.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes                1m29.183s            16
 2.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes    1m29.292s  +  0.109  19
 3.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari          1m30.199s  +  1.016  23
 4.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                 1m30.341s  +  1.158  13
 5.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari          1m30.709s  +  1.526  14
 6.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes    1m31.466s  +  2.283  13
 7.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari                 1m31.505s  +  2.322  14
 8.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault        1m31.932s  +  2.749  16
 9.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes                1m32.184s  +  3.001  17
10.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault        1m32.194s  +  3.011  19
11.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault        1m32.296s  +  3.113  20
12.  Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth       1m32.632s  +  3.449  17
13.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault        1m32.767s  +  3.584  15
14.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault           1m32.822s  +  3.639  11
15.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes        1m33.039s  +  3.856  18
16.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes        1m33.252s  +  4.069  11
17.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault        1m34.108s  +  4.925  21
18.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault           1m34.275s  +  5.092   7
19.  Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault        1m34.312s  +  5.129  17
20.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1m34.485s  +  5.302  29
21.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1m34.604s  +  5.421  31
22.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth       1m34.770s  +  5.587  13
23.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth            1m42.627s  +  13.444 16
24.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth                                  1
All Timing Unofficial

ESPNF1

Chris Medland is assistant editor at ESPNF1

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