Webber remains on top for second practice

Red Bull's Mark Webber completed a Friday double in Malaysia, topping the timing sheets for both Practice One and Practice Two.

But while he was streaks ahead in Practice One, that could not be said in Practice Two with Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel all within 0.214 seconds of Webber's fastest time of the day which was 1minute 36.876seconds.

However the more interesting aspects of the second practice session were not the fastest lap times, but more the slower times set under race simulations by the teams and while the raw pace between the Red Bull's and the McLaren's wasn't a lot on low fuel, there was clear daylight when the teams ran heavier fuel loads towards the end of the session, which would appear an ominous sign for those who had hoped to see some competition for Red Bull this weekend.

The later runs also highlighted the clear difference between the tyre degradation of the two different compounds under the Malaysian heat as opposed to the cooler temperatures in Australia a couple of weeks ago, which could lead to some interesting race strategies come Sunday.

Despite concerns over their braking failures in the first practice session Renault did complete some running in the second practice session.

Nick Heidfeld completed 16 laps to go eighth fastest, while team-mate Vitaly Petrov did 17 laps and finished thirteenth.

Michael Schumacher was 'the best of the rest' behind Red Bull and McLaren in fifth, a second slower than the top four.

Schumacher's Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg split the two Ferrari's with Felipe Massa finishing sixth and Fernando Alonso eighth.