Fernando Alonso was the fastest man in second practice at Valencia for the second year in a row.
The Ferrari driver led the two Red Bulls, followed by Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton.
For the second session in a row the red flags came out. This time they were caused by Felipe Massa, who spun to a halt at the exit of turn five. He was able to re-join after his car had been taken back to the pits.
Timo Glock also came to a halt in the session with a broken hear, but he wasn’t able to continue.
Renault’s Vitaly Petrov spun at turn 14 and had to reverse back into a position where he could continue.
He was one of several drivers to make a mistake on the slippery track. Once again there were several mistakes at turn one with drivers taking to the escape road.
The fast turns 19 and 20 were also proving a challenge, with Michael Schumacher and Adrian Sutil both catching high-speed drifts in the middle of the corners. Others, including Lewis Hamilton and the Red Bull drivers, bumped along the exit kerb. All treated the newly-installed artificial grass with caution.
Hamilton and Schumacher came close to colliding in the dying moments of the session. Hamilton, on a flying lap, caught Schumacher at the final corner, the Mercedes driver having backed off as he in turn had caught another car. Hamilton had to dodge left to avoid hitting the Mercedes and shook his hand at his rivals car as he went past.
The top three in the second session were completely different from those in the first. Ferrari looked strong from the beginning of second practice, Alonso and Massa immediately lapping faster than the best times from this morning’s session. Although the Red Bulls usurped them at the top of he times sheets for a while, Alonso claimed the place back.
| Pos. | Car | Driver | Car | Best lap | Laps | |
| 1 | 8 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1’39.283 | 33 | |
| 2 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | 1’39.339 | 0.056 | 27 |
| 3 | 6 | Mark Webber | Red Bull-Renault | 1’39.427 | 0.144 | 29 |
| 4 | 4 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1’39.650 | 0.367 | 22 |
| 5 | 2 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’39.749 | 0.466 | 24 |
| 6 | 11 | Robert Kubica | Renault | 1’39.880 | 0.597 | 28 |
| 7 | 7 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1’39.947 | 0.664 | 22 |
| 8 | 14 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | 1’40.020 | 0.737 | 30 |
| 9 | 1 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’40.029 | 0.746 | 27 |
| 10 | 9 | Rubens Barrichello | Williams-Cosworth | 1’40.174 | 0.891 | 33 |
| 11 | 3 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 1’40.287 | 1.004 | 24 |
| 12 | 15 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | Force India-Mercedes | 1’40.387 | 1.104 | 33 |
| 13 | 12 | Vitaly Petrov | Renault | 1’40.618 | 1.335 | 29 |
| 14 | 23 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’40.906 | 1.623 | 34 |
| 15 | 22 | Pedro de la Rosa | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’40.945 | 1.662 | 30 |
| 16 | 16 | Sebastien Buemi | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’41.115 | 1.832 | 35 |
| 17 | 10 | Nico Hulkenberg | Williams-Cosworth | 1’41.371 | 2.088 | 30 |
| 18 | 17 | Jaime Alguersuari | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’41.457 | 2.174 | 36 |
| 19 | 19 | Heikki Kovalainen | Lotus-Cosworth | 1’42.467 | 3.184 | 31 |
| 20 | 18 | Jarno Trulli | Lotus-Cosworth | 1’42.993 | 3.71 | 30 |
| 21 | 24 | Timo Glock | Virgin-Cosworth | 1’43.811 | 4.528 | 14 |
| 22 | 25 | Lucas di Grassi | Virgin-Cosworth | 1’43.854 | 4.571 | 27 |
| 23 | 21 | Bruno Senna | HRT-Cosworth | 1’44.095 | 4.812 | 24 |
| 24 | 20 | Karun Chandhok | HRT-Cosworth | 1’44.566 | 5.283 | 21 |
2010 European Grand Prix
bosyber
25th June 2010, 14:38
So it looks like McLaren was dropped by half a second due to updates by the others?
Prisoner Monkeys
25th June 2010, 14:39
Or they ran fuel-heavy. Teams tend to alternate one driver on a light set-up and one on a heavy between the Friday sessions; McLaren, on the other hand, seem to favour having both their drivers run heavy in one session and light in the other.
BasCB (@bascb)
25th June 2010, 14:45
As PM reminds, they were probalby running heavy. They were among the fastest in the morning session. Same for Schumacher, he went slower relatively. And Red Bull and Ferrari went quicker.
But it seems Red Bull is not happy with their pace and Ferrari is not completely sure about the car (Massa having trouble).
Interesting to see, that even Chandhok is at 105,3% of Alonso’s speed despite missing the morning session (Klien drove it) and being here for the first time. Not too bad.
fordsrule (@fordsrule)
25th June 2010, 15:23
Its not his first time :P, he was there in GP2:D
Dal5777
25th June 2010, 14:44
It would appear the Redbulls, Hamilton, Alonso and Rosberg are pretty much equal in the first two sectors with Hamilton (as expected) falling off in the final sector. Keith that straight line speed advantage still with the Mclarens?
Mike
25th June 2010, 14:51
Quite interesting! Pity it won’t be on Sunday.
By the way, when did Glock break his hear? I assume that meant gear.
dyslexicbunny
25th June 2010, 15:52
Why couldn’t he have had a broken bear? Or a broken tear? Maybe he tried to cry but couldn’t. Or they thought something was ripped but it actually wasn’t.
There are 8 keys off of ‘h’.
Maciek
25th June 2010, 16:12
Well I’d say so far he’s having a broken year…
Hallard
25th June 2010, 17:32
I thought he might have had a broken heart :)
Dal5777
25th June 2010, 14:55
Do you think that off by Massa had anything to do with unexpected and inconsistant grip levels caused by this exhaust blown wing?
BBT
25th June 2010, 15:01
No, that would be a hell of an assumption.
Ng
25th June 2010, 15:12
Hmm, it does seem mclaren is prob being lagged behind this time round. Re Dal5777, the straight line speed advantage is still with mclaren, because no matter how much other opponent teams try, the advantage is still with Mclaren as they pioneered the system and has their chassis designed around that system.
We prob will have an extremely excited race tomorrow. But im intrigued, isnt generating more downforce on straightlines producing more drag? So theoretically, mclaren should still be strong, because this circuit is not about maximum downforce but in general a balance between straightline speed, downforce n aerodynamic efficiency, which i believe the MP4-25 is strong enough n has sufficient downforce to meet requirements of this circuit. So whats the hoo-ha about the maximum downforce exhaust that ferrari brought? that hoo-ha should be coming when @ sliverstone where downforce is everything.
Tombong
25th June 2010, 15:48
“But im intrigued, isnt generating more downforce on straightlines producing more drag?” I thought the downforce created by diffuser is drag free. But still i think u’re much smarter than the Ferrari’s engineers
DaveW
25th June 2010, 15:22
Pravda has speed traps and sectors times out now. Note that VMM speed traps went up considerably in P2. Sound familiar? Just as in Montreal, they will put the wing back on for qualifying and the race and they will be very quick.
No doubt the F10 is upgraded but what we see with Ferrari is simply that Fernando Alonso is very, very quick. We are starting to see now that Alonso, Hamilton, Kubica are definitively showing their raw speed against their teammates. Alonso is carrying that car just as he did the Renault, and we know Massa is no slouch.
John M
25th June 2010, 16:31
Seems we better keep an eye on Red Bull. As I recall, they have not really focused on topping practice time sheets, but have consistently qualified well. Unless they changed their practice strategy, they may have a big edge in Valencia, given their pace in practice so far.
Dorian
26th June 2010, 1:27
@ DaveW: Agreed.
wasiF1
26th June 2010, 2:51
Ferrari are back or is it low fuel run?
I think this is the last chance for them to get everything together & then attack.Renault & Force India still keeping promise but if the Ferrari car is good then I expect that Massa will be able to do a good time on Saturday.