Welcome back for the second session. The weather is not as pleasant as earlier ... the breeze has stiffened and the temperature has dropped from 38° to 22°, and it's also clouded over.

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A little over ten minutes to go

Steve emails from Canada: "Watching from Kitchener, Ontario near Toronto in Canada. I travel and play at foosball tournaments most weekends. I enjoyed your coverage of Bahrain while I was in Detroit two weeks ago, and will view Australia from Montreal this weekend,. The next two races will find me in NY and then Atlanta. I NEED this kind of coverage - thank you so much!" A pleasure.

Leigh emails: "The air temperature today in Melbourne was never 38 degrees celsius, are you talking about track temp? It was forecast to be 27 degrees max!" Earlier it was 38 on the track, agreed. Either way, it's almost chilly now - track 25, air now 21. And there is rain forecast during the session.

Felipe Massa ready to go, Ferrari say Alonso will follow later. And light rain beginning to fall

Out come six cars as we get underway, trying to get some laps in before it gets wets

The cars are already sliding around as the drizzle continues

Only the Saubers are still out there, the rest return to the pits to change tyres

De la Rosa is told: "Bring the car in, don't take any chances"

No cars out on the track as the teams assess the conditions and change tyres

"Why don't the F1's take a leaf out of V8 super cars book and do sprint races instead of 1 long race," asks Scott from Darwin. Give them time, Scott, they'll get round to trying everything.

"No point in running now ... the track is neirher fully wet nor ok for slicks" says Ferrari. The drizzle seems to have stopped but looks like more is on the way. Force India drivers are ready to roll, but we've just seen Karun Chandhok sitting unchanged in the HRT garage so he doesn't seem to be going anywhere

A short delay ... Sutil out on intermediate tyres in the Force India, although in the Lotus garage Mike Gascoyne says: "Not wet enough for inters but not dry enough for slicks, so tricky conditions"

Sutil back in as Barrichello in the Williams heads out, testing his brakes as he goes

It seems Vitaly Petrov has been hit with a €7000 fine for speeding in the pit lane - he was clocked at 94.6 km/h when the limit is 60 km/h, so not even close

Ferrari wait as they believe more rain is on the way, but Sutil back out on dry tyres

Kubiba this morning did 1:26.927, Webber's just clocked 1:31.790

Ferrari and Mercedes on track

Barrichello 1:27.580, Rosberg 1:27.464 beats that

Hamilton 1:27.937, Kubica 1:27.746

Rosberg 1:26.956

Button clocks 1:26.735 and is immediately eclipsed by Hamilton with 1:26.648

"Are they gonna light up the track as it gets darker or will they complete the race before lights are necessary?" asks Clive from Johannesburg. There are no lights, but the race - which remember can't last more than two hours - will finish before it gets dark. It's the setting sun which is the issue rather than darkness.

Button responds 1:26.076 and is 0.572 ahead of his team-mate with Sutil in third

Make that Petrov now in third. And Hamilton becomes the first to go under 1:26 with a time of 1:25.801. What's Button got? Nothing ... he's back into the garage

This is pretty much the time the race proper starts on Sunday and it has to be said the light is not great - overcast with a threat of rain any second now

Yellow flag - Karun Chandhok made it to turn one and his car has stopped. He leaves it on the edge of the track and starts jogging back to the garage

It's started raining again

The HRT has been pushed clear and we're off again

Button is out again on soft tyres - 1:26.684 but the conditions are not with him

A stream of cars come back to base

My friend and colleague Pavan says Chandhok might be faster if he abandons his car and runs around the track

Mercedes: "Forecast is to continue for a few mins so Nico's headed back in." Ferrari not happy: "Track is wet again"

Local knowledge from Daniel. "Valid point, if the late shower come on Sunday as predicted there will be no sun and cloud cover will make it darker earlier. There is every chance of being very dark after 6pm."

All quiet. No cars on the track and some fairly miserable spectators huddling under umbrellas and plastic sheets

Alguersuari heads out ... just before the stoppage he almost lost the car on the last corner of the circuit

When this rain stops - and it will soon - then the forecast is for it to stay dry for the remainder of the session

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Quite a bit of spray coming from Alguersuari at some points of the track

Alguersuari sets the slowest lap so far - 1:50.524, more than 24 seconds behind Hamilton but it is wet out there

Out come the main body of cars

Chandhok says the HRT suffered from a gearbox problem. "We're getting there," he says nevertheless. "Both of us are struggling with stability in the bounce"

Mercedes: "Nico reporting the white lines on the track are very slippy"

"The track is not one way or the other," Barrichello tells his team

Schumacher finally out but it looks as if there is light drizzle again

The Renaults are sticking doggedly to the task in hand

Schumacher complains he is getting graining on one of his tyres

The more experienced drivers are indicating there is little to be learned from going out in such in-between conditions; for the nine who have not been here before, any time out on the track is good time

A superb idea from Chris in New York: "To bring a little more excitement during the race lets have the pit babes wipe off the helmet visors during the pit stops"

Sutil gets a good shaking as he goes wide at turn 4

"Maybe a little too early yet to know, but how are your impressions of Schumacher so far? Does it look he is getting close to Rosberg? Does he seem happy with the car?" asks Remco from Holland. It's been hard to tell today. He says he is much happier - he was unhappy with the set-up in Bahrain.

"Do you have additional information about the Virgin fuel tank being too small and how that's going to affect their race?" asks Desmond. There is an article on the site, but it shouldn't affect them this weekend. To be honest, the track is bumpy and hard work so I would be amazed if their cars make it the full distance

'Nico reporting the white lines on the track are very slippy' - Aren't the lines always slippery in the rain? asks Robert from Brattleboro. Yes, but it's how slippery. At the time some parts of the track were much wetter than others

As it stands Hamilton is quickest today with 1:25.801, Button second, Petrov third, Buemi fourth, Liuzzi fifth and Barrichello sixth. In these conditions that may well be the way it stays. Alguersuari goes onto the grass again

"I thought Paul di Resta was taking Sutil's place in this practice session," says Prakhar. He did this morning but they've changed. Kubica posts a time of 1:35.050 to underline how difficult it is out there

This from Stan - "Do you think the Lotus camp is moving in the right direction this weekend - I know it is a bit early, but I think they are the best looking cars out there." They have again struggled a bit with hydraulic problems but it will take time. Early days.

It's drying out slowly

It's too dry for intermediates but Ferrari have a problem - "Running with intermediate tyres would mean to sacrifice sets of tyres which could be helpful later on during the weekend"

Nico Hulkenberg asks over the radio whether to go on another low fuel run. I suspect his Williams paymasters might be asking him not to discuss such things over the radio again!

"How do you rate Mark Webber as a driver?" asks Will. "Do you think he has any chance to win the Championship this year?" I think he's a good driver and this year he has a good car. Allied to his experience, it has to make him a contender this year but an outside one as there are better combinations out there.

Times being set but they continue to be a long way of the ones at the top of the session - Alguersuari , for example, more than seven seconds off the pace

Renault: "Vitaly back in the box, he will certainly get back out in slicks. Although some more rain might be on the way"

Ferrari: "Both drivers on soft tyres". Webber sets a decent 1:28.298 so we might get some better times in the last few minutes

"This is the best it's going to be" Barrichello is told by his team

Schumacher goes 14th with 1:28.716. He's not been out as there have been problems with his car but Mercedes won't say what

A hint of drizzle again. A fairly uninspiring session all in all ... Button heads out

Schumacher goes 11th with 1:27.298

Six laps between Virgin and HRT, and five of those are from the two Virgins

Schumacher goes third fastest on a 1:26.522

Timo Glock's Virgin finally gets out but appears to be handling fairly poorly

Webber goes third with 1:26.343

Vettel was flying there but he got stuck behind Alonso in a slower Ferrari ... and on his next lap he ends up in the gravel as his rear tyres clip the grass and he spins

De La Rose overtakes Barrichello and then slows down, he looks annoyed at being baulked, and as the two of them play silly whatsits by slowing down, Button coming flying round the corner has to hit the brakes

Alonso 15th and Massa 17th. Not Ferrari's finest day but don't read too much into it

And that's that, Schumacher crosses the line and he is fourth fastest ... the two McLarens finishing their laps

Bizzarely, de la Rosa seems to be doing another lap for the hell of it. He might be staying out there because he cut up Button on the last lap

So Hamilton and Button the fastest for McLaren, Webber third and Schumacher fourth. That's it for today from Melbourne. We'll be back tomorrow at 2.00pm (0300GMT) for the third practice session and then at 5.00pm (0600GMT) it's qualifying. Join us then, but for now, it's good evening.