Ahead of today's second practice session, the air temperature is 23 degrees and the track temperature is 35 degrees. It remains bight, hot and sunny.

Lewis Hamilton was quickest this morning, despite limited tracktime, while the Red Bulls, Mercedes and Kubica were on the pace.

While, contrary to speculation, the asphalt held up, the track surface - especially the pitlane - is very dirty, hence lots of drivers struggled for grip with quite a few of thm enjoying excursions across the generous run-offs.

Lucas di Grassi is back in the second Virgin, Jerome d'Ambrosio having driven the car this morning.

When the lights go green, as in session one, it is Alguersuari who leads the way. Vettel and Webber are amongst the first to go out.

Alguersuari posts the first time of the day (1:49.539), however, it isn't long before Buemi, Hulkenberg and Liuzzi have gone quicker.

Tyres this weekend are hard (prime) and soft (option), though we didn't see the options this morning.

Hamilton posts 45.093 to go quickest, however, Hulkenberg and Buemi (44.536) go quicker. Elsewhere, Rosberg, who was on good form this morning, gives a full on-board description of the lap.

On his first flying lap Alonso goes quickest with a 41.928 edging out Hamilton who had just posted 42.064. Elsewhere, Glock runs wide.

Kubica goes second and Button third as Schumacher begins his first flying lap of the afternoon. The German posts 42.748 to go fourteenth while his teammate goes quickest in the first sector.

As Alonso consolidates his top spot with a 40.167, Rosberg posts 40.581 to go second. Schumacher goes fourth, slotting in behind Barrichello.

With Vettel, Trulli, Yamamoto and Senna still to post a time, Hamilton goes quickest with a 40.148.

Webber goes third with a 40.444 ahead of Rosberg, Barrichello and Massa. Replay shows the right-front off the ground for an inordinate amount of time around on the corners indicating some sort of set-up issue.

Just twenty seven minutes into the session, Yamamoto spins at Turn 16 and subsequently stalls the Hispania right in the middle of the track. Consequently, this being the most tricky section of the track, the session is red-flagged.

At 14:32 the session resumes, Alguersuari once again leading the way. In no time at all there are nineteen cars on track.

Due to the traffic, Button backs off on successive laps, suggesting we could be in for fun and games during qualifying.

Despite running wide at a number of corners, Schumacher sets a good pace and on his next lap goes quickest with a 40.009. Button goes firth with a 40.325 having gone quickest in S1. It was a mistake in the final sector that cost the Englishman.

Button finally takes the top spot, the world champion edging out Schumacher by just three-thousandths of a second. Hamilton remains third, ahead of Webber, Barrichello, Rosberg and Massa. Elsewhere, Vettel, who has yet to post a time, leaves the pits, seemingly the first driver to run the option tyre. Having posted a personal best in S1, the German runs wide in S2 as he gets caught up behind a slower car, thereby compromising the lap.

In the pitlane, there is a great cloud of smoke and dust billowing from the rear of Button's McLaren necessitating the use of fire extinguishers. Meanwhile, Vettel - having gone quickest in sectors two and three - goes quickest with a 39.204.

Trulli, who had limited running this morning, runs wide at Turn 14 and has to stop before rejoining the circuit owing to another car passing by. Meanwhile, Yamamoto's Hispania arrives back in the pitlane.

Webber goes quickest in S2 and again in S3, crossing the line at 39.251 to go second and make it a Red Bull 1-2.

Buemi kicks up a great cloud of dust as he runs wide while Hamilton posts the first sub 1:38s lap of the day (38.922). Moments later, Webber, having gone quickest in the two final sectors, posts 38.839 to go quickest.

Rosberg (option) is on a good lap improving to fourth with a 39.268. With thirty minutes remaining more and more drivers are switching to the softer rubber.