• Australian Grand Prix Free Practice 2

McLarens set the pace in the rain

Martin Williamson March 26, 2010 « Embarrassed Virgin admits fuel tank is too small | »

The McLarens of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button set the fastest times of the day in a second session at Albert Park blighted by intermittent rain and a stiff breeze.

For much of the 90 minutes teams either sat and waited for the drizzle to stop or puzzled over which tyres to use. The only meaningful times were set in the first and last few minutes when the track was at its most predictable.

As the cars headed out light rain was beginning to fall and although Nico Rosberg, the morning's fastest man, threw down the marker, the McLarens were soon squabbling between themselves, Button and Hamilton recording the quickest lap twice each in a frantic burst before they headed for shelter with 25 minutes gone, Hamilton again on top.

It seemed for a long time as if that's how it would stay - with Vitaly Petrov, who struggled in the first session, in third, Sebastian Buemi fourth, Tonio Liuzzi fifth and Rubens Barrichello sixth - as the light rain settled in.

The experienced drivers appeared to see little to be gained by driving round in the damp - Barrichello even told his team as much over the radio - venturing out with the enthusiasm of a timid swimmer confronted with an ice-cold pool. But the nine who had never driven on the circuit before today tried to get as much track time as possible.

But as the clock ran down there was a brief window where Mark Webber and then Michael Schumacher - sidelined for much of the session by mechanical issues - showed they were very much up there with the pack. The same could not be said for the Ferraris who languished near the bottom of the timesheets and whose main contribution was to hamper Sebastian Vettel as he tried to record a fast lap in the final minutes.

The newcomers again struggled. HRT, after a decent morning, managed around one hundred yards between them. The affable Karun Chandhok, in need of time behind the wheel more than anyone, roared out of the pits only to stop almost straight away when he suffered gearbox failure, while Bruno Senna sat the session out with a fuel-pressure problem.

Virgin, smarting over the admission of their undersized fuel tank, managed to get Timo Glock out at the end for nine laps but his car appeared to handle poorly on the rough surface and it is hard to believe running out of fuel will be high on their list of worries come Sunday. Lucas di Grassi was sidelined after his installation laps.

Lotus, as was the case in Bahrain, looked the best of the three, getting plenty of laps under the belts of Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli, albeit not fast ones.

Martin Williamson is managing editor of digital media ESPN EMEA

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