German GP: Vettel on top in FP2

Sebastian Vettel moved Red Bull to the top of the timesheets in second practice for the German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring.

The German seized control of the session on his first soft-tyre run, working his way down to a 1m30.416s that would stand for the remainder of the session.

Team-mate Mark Webber, on pole here in 2009 and '11, had been fastest in the early medium-compound running and again when the field first switched to softs.

He was bumped down however, first by Vettel and then by the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg, who got to within a quarter of a second of Vettel's time.

Webber did put it one of the stronger long-run stints, managing over 20 laps on mediums and at times gaining almost two seconds on the soft-shod Vettel.

Free practice one pacesetter Lewis Hamilton did not match team-mate Rosberg's improvement on the option tyre, and while he initially slotted into fourth he was gradually eased down to eighth as Lotus' and Ferrari's drivers improved.

Romain Grosjean beat Kimi Raikkonen to fourth by just five thousandths of a second, while Fernando Alonso - now free of the electrical gremlins which dogged him in first practice - shaded Massa by an even smaller margin in the fight for sixth.

Hamilton ended two tenths down the road in eighth, and as the final man to get within one second of the ultimate pace.

Jenson Button was next up, fractions ahead of Force India duo Paul di Resta and Adrian Sutil, the latter of whom lost time in the garage following a wild exit at the final turn.

The order below was largely grouped into teams, with Sergio Perez in 14th the only exception as Toro Rosso shaded Sauber, Williams, Caterham and Marussia.

Valtteri Bottas and Pastor Maldonado staged the closest of the inter-team fights, with the Finn edging out his stable-mate by just one thousandth of a second in what was a fight for 17th.

Jules Bianchi, back at Marussia in place of free practice one stand-in Rodolfo Gonzalez, sat out the final 30 minutes of running due to illness.

Pos Driver                Team                   Time      Gap       Laps
 1. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault       1m30.416s            39
 2. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes               1m30.651s  + 0.235s  38
 3. Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault       1m30.683s  + 0.267s  41
 4. Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault          1m30.843s  + 0.427s  32
 5. Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault          1m30.848s  + 0.432s  27
 6. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                1m31.056s  + 0.640s  39
 7. Felipe Massa          Ferrari                1m31.059s  + 0.643s  41
 8. Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes               1m31.304s  + 0.888s  35
 9. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1m31.568s  + 1.152s  37
10. Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes   1m31.797s  + 1.381s  40
11. Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes   1m31.824s  + 1.408s  34
12. Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m31.855s  + 1.439s  42
13. Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m32.055s  + 1.639s  39
14. Sergio Perez          McLaren-Mercedes       1m32.086s  + 1.670s  36
15. Nico Hulkenberg       Sauber-Ferrari         1m32.495s  + 2.079s  39
16. Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber-Ferrari         1m32.762s  + 2.346s  44
17. Valtteri Bottas       Williams-Renault       1m32.879s  + 2.463s  35
18. Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault       1m32.880s  + 2.464s  36
19. Charles Pic           Caterham-Renault       1m33.695s  + 3.279s  38
20. Giedo van der Garde   Caterham-Renault       1m33.804s  + 3.388s  40
21. Jules Bianchi         Marussia-Cosworth      1m34.017s  + 3.601s  10
22. Max Chilton           Marussia-Cosworth      1m34.667s  + 4.251s  39