Bahrain GP: Raikkonen leads from Webber in FP2

Kimi Raikkonen edged out the Red Bulls for the fastest time in second Friday practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix at Sakhir.

Raikkonen's pacesetting lap of 1m34.154s in his Lotus came just after the halfway point.

It could have been faster still, as the Finn ran wide at the final corner on the way to the flag. Yet even with that slip, Raikkonen's pace was sufficient to edge him 0.030 seconds of Mark Webber, who had been in front for the preceding 20 minutes.

Raikkonen then set an encouraging pace on his later long run, although he was keen to come in earlier than Lotus wanted him to as his tyres faded.

Sebastian Vettel completed the top three in the second Red Bull, a tenth behind his team-mate.

Morning pacesetter Ferrari dropped back only slightly.

After his fastest time in practice one, Felipe Massa had some minor adventures on the way to sixth. Fernando Alonso was fourth.

Between them, Paul di Resta repeated his excellent morning pace and kept Force India in the top five.

Mercedes had a low-key afternoon: Nico Rosberg eighth and Lewis Hamilton 10th, split by Adrian Sutil in the second Force India.

Romain Grosjean was six places and 0.477s behind his team-mate Raikkonen in seventh.

Neither McLaren made it into the top 10, Jenson Button and Sergio Perez ending up 11th and 13th.

Just a day after saying he had learned an important lesson from his Chinese GP collision with Sutil, Esteban Gutierrez was in the wars again as he banged wheels with Charles Pic as he tried to pass the slower Caterham. The Sauber had to limp back to the pits with a puncture.

Pic's car was unscathed, and he got within half a second of Gutierrez and Valtteri Bottas's Williams in the final results.

The Frenchman was the best of the backmarker group, just ahead of the Marussias of Max Chilton and Jules Bianchi, as the the Briton outpaced his team-mate for the first time. Bianchi had sat out morning practice in favour of third driver Rodolfo Gonzalez.

Pos Driver                Team                   Time      Gap       Laps
 1. Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault          1m34.154s             31
 2. Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault       1m34.184s  + 0.030s   26
 3. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault       1m34.282s  + 0.128s   29
 4. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                1m34.310s  + 0.156s   28
 5. Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes   1m34.543s  + 0.389s   35
 6. Felipe Massa          Ferrari                1m34.552s  + 0.398s   34
 7. Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault          1m34.631s  + 0.477s   33
 8. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes               1m34.666s  + 0.512s   37
 9. Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes   1m34.932s  + 0.778s   33
10. Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes               1m34.976s  + 0.822s   29
11. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1m35.356s  + 1.202s   32
12. Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m35.506s  + 1.352s   36
13. Sergio Perez          McLaren-Mercedes       1m35.5$9s  + 1.435s   36
14. Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m35.761s  + 1.607s   33
15. Nico Hulkenberg       Sauber-Ferrari         1m36.133s  + 1.979s   36
16. Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault       1m36.279s  + 2.125s   33
17. Valtteri Bottas       Williams-Renault       1m36.579s  + 2.425s   28
18. Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber-Ferrari         1m36.616s  + 2.462s   34
19. Charles Pic           Caterham-Renault       1m37.061s  + 2.907s   32
20. Max Chilton           Marussia-Cosworth      1m37.313s  + 3.159s   33
21. Jules Bianchi         Marussia-Cosworth      1m37.363s  + 3.209s   29
22. Giedo van der Garde   Caterham-Renault       1m37.970s  + 3.816s   34