In the second free practice session of the Australian GP, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button managed to make it a McLaren 1-2 at the head of the timing sheets. Just five minutes before the session began though, it started to rain. This meant teams had to wait for the skies to clear up a little and the track to dry as well.
While Nico Rosberg was the first to set a quick time, he was soon pipped by McLaren teammates, Lewis and Jenson. A second spell of rain made it difficult for the drivers to set competitive lap times. Mark Webber and Michael Schumacher managed some quick times towards the end of the session, putting them in third and fourth place respectively. It looked like Sebastian Vettel might also set a quick time, but all his efforts came to nothing when he spun on the approach to Turn 6.
Vitaly Petrov, Sebastien Buemi, Adrian Sutil, Vitantonio Liuzzi, Rubens Barrichello and Nico Rosberg completed the top 10. The Ferraris of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa clocked the 15th and 17th fastest time, having missed the dry spell in the session.
And it was more trouble for Karun Chandhok and the Hispania Racing team. Chandhok had to stop his HRT car a mere 200 laps into his installation lap, when his car suffered a gearbox failure. His teammate, Bruno Senna, missed the entire session as his car was suffering from a fuel pressure problem.
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