Vettel tops close and busy FP2

F1 Grand Prix, GP Spain, Circuit de Catalunya

Sebastian Vettel set the fastest time during second free practice at Barcelona. The Red Bull driver led a very busy session and ended up marginally ahead of home hero Fernando Alonso and his own team mate, Mark Webber.

With the sun out and a dry track waiting for the drivers, cars are immediately appearing on track as soon as the pit light goes green for FP2. Sebastian Vettel for instance is one of the first men on track after having run very few laps in the damp morning session.

Most cars are initially running on the hard Orange tyre and it soon turns out that both Mercedes cars are quick. Both men are exchanging the top of the timesheet during the first 20 minutes until Mark Webber takes over the top. Fernando Alonso improved further after his team grinded off some parts of his car's floor around the rear wheels.

20 minutes later, it's Webber again who sets the fastest time of the session after switching to medium tyres. Both Mercedes cars have also switched to the mediums but neither appeared to be able to be as quick or consistent as with the harder compound.

As of that moment most drivers initiated longer runs on the medium tyres simulating a race stint and trying to find out how far the tyres last. The Lotus cars again appeared to have great tyre managed during these runs while at Mercedes the tyre degradation issues are still not resolved.

20 minutes from the end of the session, Paul Di Resta's left rear tyre suddenly delaminates coming out of the fast righthander ahead of the pit straight. The rubber in the centre of the tyre simply flew off, with the tyre carcass itself seemingly still intact and inflated. It's a worrying situation for Pirelli as such a failure after only 6 laps on the tyres may indicate an outright manufacturing issue.

Towards the end of the session, no one of the front runners really managed to improve their times, leaving Vettel on top of the timesheet, a mere few tenths ahead of Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber.