Vettel top second practice

Vettel, who had a low-key morning session after finishing over 1.3 seconds off Hamilton, could not match the time set by the Briton in the opening session, however, finishing with a one minute 24.010 seconds.

The Red Bull driver outpaced Hamilton by 0.036s, but the Briton looked set to go quicker than that before he was hit by traffic during his run of soft tyres.

Michael Schumacher had a promising afternoon with the third quickest time in the Mercedes.

Ferrari's drivers Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso had a stronger session than in the morning, finishing fourth and fifth respectively.

Mark Webber was sixth quickest in the second Red Bull.

The afternoon session saw a much busier start than the morning one, with several driver posting a time right away.

Sauber's Sergio Perez was the early pace-setter, before he was demoted to second before the ten-minute mark by Hamilton, who posted a 1:26.507 on his first run with the medium tyres.

The first incident of the session also took place before ten minutes had passed, when Sebastien Buemi went wide at Parabolica, the Toro Rosso driver crashing against the barriers. Although he was unhurt, the Swiss driver's car was heavily damaged and could not return to action.

After that, Button shot to the top of the times with a lap in the 1:25s, with Webber moving to second less than two tenths behind the Briton.

Webber improved on the following lap to outpace Button, but it was team-mate Vettel who took the top spot after 15 minutes when he stopped the clock at 1:25.635, improving by over a second on the following laps as he completed a longer run.

It took until the 45-minute mark for Vettel to be demoted from first place, when Schumacher completed a run with the soft tyres to set a 1:24.816, improving to a 1:24.347 on the following lap.

Schumacher's time was closely matched by Massa, the Brazilian completing his first run on softs to finish just 0.019 behind the Mercedes driver.

As more drivers began to use the softer Pirelli compound, the times continued to tumble, with Hamilton going quickest with 30 minutes left.

Vettel's first lap on the soft tyre was hindered by traffic, but the German still managed to move up to second behind the McLaren driver, who looked set to go even quicker on his second lap but nearly made contact at Parabolica with a very slow Jamie Alguersuari.

Vettel did manage to go quicker on his second lap of the run and jumped to the top with a 1:24.010.

Daniel Ricciardo endured a difficult session after spending most of the 90 minutes in the garage as his HRT mechanics worked on the car. He managed just seven laps.