• Turkish Grand Prix - FP2

Button quickest in Turkey practice

ESPNF1 Staff
May 6, 2011
Jenson Button just edged out Nico Rosberg for the fastest time of the day © Getty Images
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Jenson Button set the fastest lap of a dry second practice session for the Turkish Grand Prix, as Mercedes power dominated the headline times.

Button headed Mercedes' Nico Rosberg by less than 0.1s, with Lewis Hamilton half a second further back just ahead of Michael Schumacher. Mark Webber was fifth for Red Bull as his team-mate Sebastian Vettel failed to get out on track at all following his crash in first practice.

It was a busy session as the teams tried to make up for the lack of dry running in the morning, and early lap times were immediately around 10 seconds quicker than the quickest time from FP1. Hamilton was the initial pacesetter, while his team-mate Button seemed to be suffering as the car bucked heavily over the bumps under braking for turn 12.

The bumps were a problem for many teams, with Jerome d'Ambrosio losing a part of his front wing as his Virgin took some punishment and Jarno Trulli ran over the debris during what was an otherwise good afternoon for Lotus as he set a competitive lap quicker than Kamui Kobayashi's Sauber. Kobayashi's team-mate fared much better, setting the ninth fastest time just behind fellow rookie Paul di Resta.

At the front the Mercedes pair showed impressive pace on the harder tyre that was used by all the drivers during their earlier runs. Following on from his encouraging showing in China, Rosberg held top spot for the middle part of the session until Button just pipped him once on the softer compound. Felipe Massa also looked strong, setting the sixth fastest time 0.8s off Button's pace.

It was a less smooth session for Massa's team-mate Fernando Alonso who had a hydraulics problem early in the session. Once he got out on track again he soon spun applying KERS on the exit of turn five, and then returning to the pit lane he stopped at the pit lane entrance and had to be pushed back to the garage.

Also enduring a tough afternoon was Pastor Maldonado, who was delayed in getting out on track due to his spin late in the morning, eventually getting on track 30 minutes after the start of the session. He had a spin during the early part of turn 8 but with 10 minutes left he ran wide on to the kerb at the same corner as Vettel had done in the morning session, and in trying to catch the slide he overcorrected and slid in to the wall on the outside of the turn, damaging his front wing. It wasn't a good session for Williams, with Rubens Barrichello having his session ended early by a KERS water leak.

Another man to have a few problems was Schumacher, who had a strange moment going through turn 11 late in the session when a Force India crept passed him on the inside. Apparently caught by surprise, Schumacher appeared to flinch which pitched the car in to a spin and will have ruined a set of tyres.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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