The Ferraris surprisingly placed themselves ahead of the Mercedes on the second free practice session. Kimi Räikkönen set the fastest time ahead of Vettel, Rosberg and Hamilton.
Esteban Gutiérrez continued his spell of bad luck after not getting much track time on FP1 due to engine problems. This time the Mexican found a brakes issue which forced him to go back to the pit lane very early in the session. Kevin Magnussen‘s mechanics were unable to fix their car on time after his rear suspension failure on FP1, so the Dane didn’t get to test in this session.
While Mercedes and Red Bull were setting the early pace, Ferrari decided to start with a race simulation. When they tested qualifying, they went up to the top of the timesheets, with Kimi Räikkönen only one tenth ahead of Vettel and 0,237 ahead of Rosberg.
In the last part of the session everyone did long runs for the race on Sunday, where the medium tyre might be crucial again like it was in Melbourne. Fortunately, the fear of new Pirelli safety issues disappeared in this session and it all seems to have happened by coincidence.