Ahead of today's second free practice session, the air temperature is 28 degrees and the track temperature is 42 degrees. It remains bright and sunny.

Rubens Barrichello topped the timesheets this morning, edging out the McLarens, as Brawn appeared to have rediscovered some of the form it has been lacking in recent races. Both Red Bull drivers were in the Top 8, while Adrian Sutil finished a very encouraging sixth for Force India.

The lights go green and shortly afterwards Buemi, Alguersuari and Rosberg head down the pitlane to get things underway.

Unlike this morning there are no installation laps, it's straight down to business.

Buemi crosses the line at 43.726 to get proceedings underway and within moments he is joined on the timesheets by Alguersuari, Badoer and Rosberg.

Just five minutes into the session, Hamilton goes quickest (43.214), ahead of Buemi, Webber, Alonso, Alguersuari, Badoer, Kovalainen and Nakajima. In total there are fifteen drivers on track.

The yellow flags come out as Hamilton spins, the Englishman now running the new front wing fitted to Kovalainen's car this morning. The World Champion does well to keep the front of the car out of the barriers.

Alonso posts 42.661 to go quickest, ahead of Buemi and Kovalainen. Sutil improves to fourth ahead of Button and Hamilton.

Sutil goes quickest with a 42.601 as Force India - with its raft of new components - continues to impress. However, moments later Alonso goes quickest in all three sectors finally crossing the line at 41.861.

Rosberg improves to second with a 42.310 watched from the pit-wall by a relaxed, and very fit looking, Michael Schumacher.

Barrichello demonstrates that this morning was no fluke, improving to third with a 42.399, as Grosjean posts 42.803 to go eighth.

Sutil complains that his car is over-steering, hard on the brakes and generally unstable. Considering he's currently sixth one hates to think what sort of times he'd be setting once all these problems are resolved.

Nakajima improves to third with a 42.2101, thereby making it a Williams 2-3 behind local hero Alonso.

The tyre options this weekend are soft and super-soft, and twenty-five minutes into the session Mark Webber is the first of the big guns to appear with the softer option.

Webber goes fourth and Sutil fifth as it is revealed that Hamilton has done some damage to the new wing on his car and it is thought the Englishman will play no further part in the session.

Now both on super-softs, the Williams duo goes first and second with Nakajima posting a 41.588 to take the top spot.

Button goes quickest in the second sector to go ninth overall only to be demoted when Vettel posts 41.627 to go second. Elsewhere, Badoer, currently twentieth and 2.9s off the pace, gets worryingly close to the barriers.

Button goes quickest with a 41.534 as Barrichello takes third making Rosberg the meat in a Brawn GP sandwich.

Clearly unhappy at being the meat in any sandwich, Rosberg posts 41.394 to go quickest as Heidfeld goes third and Buemi fifth, just ahead of Vettel.

At half-time, it's: Rosberg, Button, Heidfeld, Barrichello, Buemi, Vettel, Alonso, Nakajima, Raikkonen and Sutil.

Alonso goes quickest in the first sector and quickest overall. Surprisingly, the Spaniard is still on the harder compound.

From out of nowhere, Trulli (super-softs) goes quickest with a 41.204 only to be eclipsed by Barrichello, also on super-softs, posts 40.944. Moments later, Button goes even quicker, taking the top spot with a 40.911.

Raikkonen breaks into the top five, the Finn posting a 41.338 on the super-softs. Teammate Badoer remains twentieth.

Alonso crosses the line at 40.620 to go quickest, as teammate Grosjean slips down to seventeenth.