Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes top the charts once again, with Sebastian Vettel four tenths slower, and Nico Rosberg nearly four tenths off Vettel. Kimi Raikkonen was fourth.

The second practice action came to a stop in the early goings as Romain Grosjean’s Lotus went Mad Max and shed its engine cover and bodywork on the pit straight.

It was a harsh session for Red Bull, with Daniel Ricciardo stuck in the garage with Power Unit troubles, and was even caught accidentally dismantling the garage while stretching. His team-mate Daniil Kvyat did get much more running to finish fifth.

McLaren did show improvement from what we saw in the morning, particularly with its qualifying pace. Jenson Button came up with a good lap to climb to seventh, and Fernando Alonso was 11th, higher up than many expected them to be.

The afternoon running featured race simulations as usual, though some drivers disagreed over the radio, such as Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, who told the team “Do you want me to keep going and doing laps and laps because I am getting nothing out of this?”

Mercedes and Ferrari keep at it at the front, and we must say a very good showing by the Toro Rossos in both Friday practices. How can they and the rest perform on Saturday? We'll see.

The top ten in the second practice:
1. Hamilton — 1:26.852
2. Vettel — +0.408s
3. Rosberg — +0.764s
4. Raikkonen — +0.928s
5. Kvyat — +1.091s
6. Verstappen — +1.165s
7. Button — +1.642s
8. Bottas — +1.673s
9. Sainz — +1.822s
10. Massa — +1.860s