Welcome to live coverage of the second free practice session from the Bahrain GP.

There's the chequered flag - it's Nico Rosberg's session, but the security concerns still dominate. Free practice 3 is at 9am on Saturday. Assuming the race is still on, you can join us for it then.

Michael Schumacher brakes a little late and runs wide, but the run-off areas are pretty large here so in many places drivers can push the limits with impunity. It's not Monaco, that's for sure...

Last-placed Charles Pic is really struggling. His best lap is a 1:41.8, nine seconds off the pace. And well outside the 107% mark. Pic's best lap this morning was a 1:37.6 so hopefully he'll be back on the straight and narrow in qualiofying tomorrow.

All 22 drivers are out on the track as the session nears its finish. It's just like watching a race.

Long stints galore - all 20 runners have done at least 20 laps. Pastor Maldonado leads the way on 33 laps.

The track temperature has dropped from 40C to 33C... evening is approaching, as Force India know only too well.

Lewis Hamilton has improved his best time to 1:33.747 to go P4.

More from Bernie, straight out of the Alex Ferguson school of media relations: "You guys love it. What we really need is an earthquake or something like that, so you can write about that now. I think you guys want a story and it is a good story. And if there isn't a story you make it up as usual. So nothing changes."

Here's the latest from Bernie Ecclestone (to be accompanied by the sound of a man washing his hands): "I can't call this race off. It is nothing to do with us, the race. We are here, we have an agreement to be here and we are here. The national sporting authority in this country can ask the FIA if they want to call the race off."

Webber, Vettel and Rosberg are all now six laps into a long stint. So not a great deal to report here...

Mark Webber's KERS has failed, he is told over his team radio.

Most of the field are involved in race preparations, which means a high fuel load, medium compound tyres and relatively modest lap times.

The McLarens have not been out on soft tyres yet, hence their relatively lowly placing at the moment.

With the exception of the two Force Indias, everybody has done at least 10 laps. FI put in a good stint in the first session and are adamant their absence here won't hurt them, but you have to wonder.

How they stand as we enter the second half of the session: 1-Rosberg, 2-Webber, 3-Vettel, 4-Schumacher, 5-Kobayashi, 6-Alonso, 7-Button, 8-Grosjean, 9-Hamilton, 10-Perez.

According to Politics Home: "Ed Miliband says he doesn't think the Bahrain Grand Prix should go ahead. Calls on the Government to 'put pressure' on Formula One."

Fernando Alonso makes a mistake on a flying lap, and he is still well off the pace in sixth place. Charles Pic is currently some nine seconds off the pace...

1:32.816 from Nico Rosberg on soft tyres - P1 and comfortably the fastest lap of the day.

The talk in the paddock is that the Crown Price of Bahrain is preparing to address the media - could be interesting.

Seb Vettel, on those soft tyres, takes a tenth of a second off his P1 time, but we might have expected more.