Highlights and report of the 2nd session of the Chinese Grand Prix 2019: Bottas Tinted by Vettel, followed closely by Verstappen

After Ferrari seemed to enjoy a comfortable advantage in free practice 1, Valtteri Bottas showed that Mercedes was still in the fight in China, the Finn having set the fastest time in FP2 in Shanghai in just 0.027 seconds from Sebastian Vettel.

Despite the first few laps of Bottas and his teammate Lewis Hamilton, Bottas recovered to lead the session, while there seems to be more to come this weekend Hamilton, who could handle only the fourth, 0 , 7 seconds of Finn.

Max Verstappen's performance was positive for Red Bull, who finished just over two-tenths shy of Bottas' time in third – despite a flicker at the last corner on his fastest lap that would have lost him little longer.

Like Hamilton, Charles Leclerc was another favorite who failed to fire the sheets in FP2, the near winner in Bahrain finishing the session in seventh place. The Monegasque also ended his session early after Ferrari parked his SF90 to perform checks of the cooling system of the car.

Despite these problems, Leclerc had at least two more spots on Pierre Gasly's second Red Bull, as the Frenchman seemed to continue struggling in the RB15, a car he described as "difficult" when preparation of the circuit this weekend. action.

The moderate performances of Leclerc and Gasly left Renault and McLaren in the limelight, with Nico Hulkenberg finishing on a solid P5 – as he was in FP2 in Bahrain two weeks ago – while Carlos Sainz was P6, the pair at the time. in a second time of Bottas and with their respective teammates Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo forming the rest of the top 10 in P8 and P9.

Daniil Kvyat of Toro Rosso was on the back of the session, after the team noticed a problem on his FP1 Honda power unit and decided to exchange it for a new one for FP2. The problem seemed to resolve itself, however, Kvyat finished in 13th position – although the team still working on his STR14 while the 2nd PC was starting, the Russian saw his track time limited.

Haas is another worried team, after Romain Grosjean's front wing seemed to fail, as the Frenchman tried to get past Turn 1. The team will probably have to find a quick fix to strengthen the game before the start. Saturday race.

Meanwhile, after an engine installation problem that prevented him from setting a time in FP1, Antonio Giovinazzi was back in FP2, but his best time was only enough for P18, 1,363m ahead of the best of his teammate Kimi Raikkonen in P11. The Italian was two tenths ahead of Robert Kubica in Williams' first place, his teammate George Russell finishing at the back of the pack.

So at 24-hour qualifying, there seems to be nothing between Mercedes and Ferrari – but Verstappen also seems to be part of the mix for Red Bull, and would surely like to become the 100th F1 pole at the 1000th World Championship.

FP2: Mercedes drivers suffer slow tendrils in the first lap