Welcome back to live coverage of the Chinese Grand Prix weekend. Second practice is up next after we saw the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton lead the way in the morning. Is that an omen of things to come? Is Rosberg as quick around here as he was last year? We should have a few more answers to those questions over the next two hours.

Not much has happened since FP1. The McLaren boys have been working on Sergio Perez's car after the Mexican left it in the wall at the end of the session. The front wing and nose will need to be replaced but the rest of the car looks fine. Sporting director Sam Michael said the team was about 30-40% of the way through its Friday programme so far with some positive results from the early tests of the car's upgrades.

Meanwhile, we've been filling our time researching Gibraltar Airport after we got talking about flights to pre-season tests earlier this year. Random, I know, but apparently Gibraltar is the fifth most dangerous airport in the world, partly due to the fact it has a road running across the runway.

Back to the important stuff on the track, and it looks like we have a nice battle shaping up. Once again the tyres are suffering with degradation but we've yet to see the soft compound out on track. Teams like Red Bull, who have struggled a little with degradation so far this year, have their work cut out over the next 90 minutes of running to get a handle on these compounds. That might explain why the car was a little off the pace of the Mercedes in FP1 as we would expect the RB9 to still be the class of the field over one lap.

The other thing to mention about tyre degradation here is that it is the front tyres that are wearing out first. That's quite unusual as the rear tyres are usually the first to go, so that will help explain any anomalies we see this weekend compared to the first two races.

Here's a picture of the McLaren's floor as it got craned away. You can see rubbing on the plank caused by the car's troublesome ride, which was an issue at the first two races.

© Sutton Images

McLaren's Sam Michael also confirmed the front wing was an old-spec one so no major damage to the plans for the race weekend. He said Perez's tyres were quite worn and under temperature and said the pit wall should have warned its driver.

Hugh emails to say: "It's about time to have another GP of Gibraltar, we haven't had one since the days of Fandango and Girling Foss, and I dout you will find a commentator like Berle Ives."

Ah yes, Peter Ustinov's GP of Gibraltar. Well worth a listen if you've never come across it...

The drivers are being strapped in for the start of this session. Air temp at 22C and track temp at 36C.

We have a green light, just waiting for our first car...

Esteban Gutierrez heads out to get us started followed by Jean-Eric Vergne.

Riku points out: "Temps the others way around perhaps? :)"

You're right! Just to confirm air temp is 22C and track is 36C!

Vergne clocks a 1:40.951, Gutierrez manages a 1:41.876. Straight back down to work for those two.

Lewis Hamilton is wasting no time either and sets a 1:37.935 on his first flying lap. He got the car very sideways coming out of the final corner, which was great to watch but looked like it caught him a little by surprise.

Rosberg immediately goes quicker with a 1:37.669

Chilton has stopped on track and is getting out of his car. It looks like a technical problem coming out of turn five. Not good as that could well be the end of his session and a 90 minutes of running lost.

No yellow flag for Chilton's stricken Marussia, which is a little bit odd, but it is being wheeled away by the marshals.

Webber sets a time 0.040 off Rosberg with his first lap. He's only 0.1s off his FP1 time on that first timed lap.

Perez is in the gravel again. He manages to keep the car going and comes over the radio saying "I've had a bit of a moment".

It happened at turn eight and he flat spotted all four tyres as he went across the tarmac run off, it also looked like a bit of bodywork came off in the gravel. He eventually hit the barrier, but it was just a nudge.

Sutil also makes a mistake at the same corner, but he keeps it out of the gravel.

Not a good start to the weekend for Perez as he returns to the pits. That set of tyres is ruined, leaving him with just a set of softs for the rest of this session. However, the team will give the car a good look over before he heads out again.

Rosberg sets a 1:36.730, just a fraction shy of his FP1 time. Hamilton sets a 1:37.298 in response.

Van der Garde loses the rear of the car in turn one but manages to hold the car in shape in the run off area amid plumes of tyre smoke. That won't have done his tyres any favours but he carries on his way.

Rahulan asks: "Is it fair to say Mercedes are the team to beat this weekend or is it too early to draw any conclusions on the fastest car in China? Also can you throw some light on Ferrari updates, if any?"

Mercedes certainly look like the team to beat at the moment. The cars look very quick on track and Rosberg especially seems to have his set-up nailed. Red Bull don't always show their true colours until a little later in the weekend so we still need to wait and see.

Ferrari have brought a number of updates and we'll give you a little more detail when we know more.

Max stopped out on track due to an engine protection 'kill' kicking in. Won't know why til we get the car back but oil pressure possibility

— Marussia F1 Team (@Marussia_F1Team) April 12, 2013

Webber is on a quick lap at the moment on soft tyres ...

It seems a little early to go with the softs, but he manages a 1:36.092 nonetheless.

That latest lap puts Webber fastest by 0.638s but was still slower than the Mercedes in the final sector.

Here's a little more from McLaren sporting director Sam Michael on the difficult birth of the MP4-28 this year: "We strung together two or three designs on other cars. If you look at the front suspension we went down the route Ferrari had gone, rear suspension was Red Bull and the chassis height most of the other teams had done already. Then the last thing was the sidepod area. What he probably meant is that no-one else has put them all together. And to be honest at the moment it hasn't worked has it? But if it does start working now and we can turn it around quick enough - we didn't go to Melbourne and plan to come ninth, that's for sure, even with all those changes. However, we're looking at it positively with this car and the fact it's responding quite well to where we think we can improve; hopefully we can show it was the right choice but only time will tell."

Rakesh says: "Perez is giving a headache for McLaren. No doubt the MP4-28 is not as good as its predecessor, but Perez is proving he is way off his predecessor as well."

Siddhesh asks: "Here's a strange question. Will there be any track where the harder of the two compounds might actually be quicker?"

That's very unlikely as it would need the tyre to start to degrade significantly before the end of the lap. If you took the super-soft to somewhere like Malaysia you might see that, but not at the circuits where Pirelli intend to bring it. The big question is how many laps it takes for the soft to degrade and become slower than the hard tyres. That's what dictates tyre strategy this year.

Rosberg sets a 1:35.819 on soft tyres to go fastest. That's the fastest time yet and 0.273s faster than Webber.

Altaf asks: "Can you put some light on lotus !!! Wats going in der with lotus !!!! They just lost their winning car suddenly!!!!"

The Lotus car is quick but seems to have a bit of a peaky performance window. In the cool conditions in Australia it was comfortably quick, but in Malaysia the team lost its way with set-up after Friday practice. Don't read too much into the early times here as each team is working on a different programme.

Nino on Perez: "Agree there is a lot more to the make up of a f1 champion. Not sure if Perez is quite championship material due to his erratic driving behaviour."

Hamilton only manages a 1:36.496 on the soft tyres. He's 0.677s off team-mate Rosberg.

Bianchi sets the 11th fastest time on the soft tyre. He's just 2.906 off the best time off Rosberg, which is not bad for a Marussia.

Bottas has been in the garage so far today but is now getting ready to head back out. The mechanics are replacing the rear bodywork so looks like it was an engine or gearbox issue.

Perez's car is still being worked on in the garage as the mechanics replace some of the missing bodywork from that mistake earlier.

Vettel has set a soft tyre lap but ran very wide in the final corner. He's fourth fastest, 0.972s off Rosberg's soft tyre lap.

Ricciardo isn't far off Vettel's pace with a 1:37.206. He's fifth fastest at the moment.

Dirk asks: "What is the current feeling between Vettel and Webber and is Vettel holding back till qualifying?"

Judging by yesterday's press conferences the two Red Bull drivers are not happy with each other. Vettel said Webber didn't deserve the win in Malaysia, which seems to be a step back in their relationship from Sepang where he apologised. So far Webber is quicker but I don't think we've seen the best Vettel has to offer - he usually saves that for Q3.

Massa is now fastest on a 1:35.340 on the soft tyres as Ferrari shows the first indication of its pace this weekend.

Rosberg has already moved on to his long run simulation as he sets a much slower time on the soft tyres. It's still relatively early in the session for heavy fuel runs so he might return to the mediums at the end of the 90 minutes.

Alonso, by contrast, hasn't touched his soft tyres yet, neither has Button.

Marco says: "Bianchi is very impresive , reminds me of Alonso in the Minardi, I have watched Max Chilton in lower formulas and know he is no slow coach so that makes me very impessed with Bianchi."

Max is back and so is the car. We'll see what's possible now twitter.com/Marussia_F1Tea…

— Marussia F1 Team (@Marussia_F1Team) April 12, 2013

Raikkonen goes second fastest on the soft tyres with a 1:35.492. He's 0.152s off Massa.

Bottas is now heading out in the Williams for his first lap of the session.

Grosjean only manages a 1:36.963 for tenth. He's running the old exhaust here compared to the new one on Raikkonen's. Grosjean was meant to have an updated version too this weekend, so maybe they are just running a comparison to gather data.

Alonso goes third fastest with a 1:35.755. He's 0.415s off his team-mate.

Perez is now back on track and has gone straight out on the soft tyres.

Perez only manages 11th fastest with a 1:36.940. Not a great lap but he may have been taking it a little easier after his mistakes earlier today.

Button managed a 1:36.432 to go fifth fastest, which seems to be more representative of the McLaren's pace, although he did set his time later than Hamilton who probably would be quicker if he went out now on fresh soft tyres.

Button is still a second off Massa, so that gives you an idea of the size of the gap at the moment.

It looks like all the drivers have now moved onto longer runs as Raikkonen loses the rear of his car on the exit of turn 10 but just about keeps it under control.

Marco asks: "Button hasn't been out on softs is that right?"

No, Button has been out on softs, so that second gap to Massa I was talking about is representative.

"Do you think the RBR situation is clearly out of their Management hands. Why still RBR cant say we will Reprimanded Drivers if they repeated the Incidents like Sepang 13 or Silverstone 11?"

Red Bull have always said they deal with these issues behind closed doors, but Vettel admitted yesterday that no real punishment had been handed out and challenged journalists to come up with a sanction. The way he was talking yesterday seemed to show that he has basically got away with it and Red Bull has been talking about ditching team orders - which is almost an admission that they were in the wrong. Personally, I think they should be harder with their drivers, but it is difficult to punish a driver without upsetting the performance too much.

Hamilton has now returned to the medium tyres after a run on the softs.

Alonso has a little moment coming out of the final corner. Even on long runs the cars are getting sideways so it's not going to be easy this weekend to keep the tyres in shape while maintaining a decent pace.

Peter on Red Bull: "Personally I think it is a case of the tail wagging the dog. I think they have lost the plot, if they want to be recognised as a team then act as a team and not let an individual do as he wishes. It does not send a very good message to the drivers when they threaten sanctions behind closed doors and then appear to act like a "toothless tiger" and do nothing. It appears as though Vettel is going to do as he wishes as he knows he can get away with it. Just my 002cents worth!!"

Rosberg is also back out on the medium as he continues his heavy fuel running.

Massa told his pace is not good compared to his rivals on long runs. But the Ferrari is stuck in traffic, so his engineer Rob Smedley tells him to get into some clean air.

It looks like a bit of bodywork just came off Sutil's car. The Force India seems quick again this weekend and we know its kind to its tyres.

Button suffers a puncture or de-lamination on his front left tyre. That was on his set of softs.

A replay shows Button flat-spotted his tyre on the run down to turn 14 and that seems to have run it down to the canvas. He's gone straight back out on medium tyres now.

Massa is now getting positive comments from Smedley on the pit wall and his pace is looking good on his medium tyres.

Button returns to the pits and the car is pushed back to the garage. The team may want to take a look at the floor of the car to check it wasn't damaged when it was being dragged along the ground due to that tyre issue.

Chilton is back out on track in the Marussia after his early problem ... but he has stopped on track again. Not good.

Satyajeet says: "I think red bull cannot be too harsh with vettel just now, he has brought them 3 championships single handed. The last thing they want to do is sanction him and lose him to say Ferrari!. Redbull is no where near as powerful a team as McLaren or Ferrari where drivers are obliged to drive for them.. It is more a case of Red Bull being obliged to Vettel… He is slowly gaining the command Schumacher once had over F1"

Button complained of understeer on his return to the track so it sounds like there is an issue with the McLaren after that tyre problem.

A huge chunk of rubber flies off Raikkonen's soft tyres on his long run. There's an awful lot of rubber marbles out there at the moment.

Benjamin: "Mclaren seems to be struggling. What is that they are not getting right?"

The car has really been struggling with its ride and downforce levels when running at normal ride heights. If they run the car low it seems to work but the plank on the bottom of the car would be worn more than the regulations allow. That suggests it is a problem with the air flow under the car. McLaren are running a higher nose this year to allow more airflow under the car (usually a good thing) but they seem to be struggling with managing it at the moment. However, the car is in better shape than it was at the start of the year so hopefully they are making some progress.

We're in the last minute of the session now. Lots of cars still on track but they are having to nurse their tyres at this stage and lap times have dropped a long way off.

There's the chequered flag and Massa stays fastest.

It was an impressive performance from Ferrari as the car also looked good on long runs. We should say that Mercedes and Red Bull went out earlier than the Ferraris for their soft tyre runs so will not have had as good track conditions. Either way, it all makes for a very interesting weekend ahead.

A quick question from Satyajeet: "The drivers seem to be doing close to 70 laps over the 3 practice sessions, are they running the older engines from the previous 2 races? Or do they have to run with the engines that will be used during the race?"

They run old engines at the end of their duty cycle and then fit race engines on Saturday ahead of final practice.

I hope you all enjoyed the session and it looks like it's going to be a very interesting weekend with Ferrari, Lotus, Red Bull and Mercedes all in the mix. Stay logged on to ESPN for all the reaction from the session later today.