Nico Rosberg was again quickest in second practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix as McLaren showed encouraging pace.

With Mercedes having been over 1.8s clear of the field in the opening session, the gap remained over a second as Rosberg's time of 1:31.001 on the supersoft tyre saw him a quarter of a second clear of team-mate Lewis Hamilton and nearly 1.3s ahead of Jenson Button in third place.

Not only was Ferrari limited to fifth and sixth quickest behind Max Verstappen's Toro Rosso, Sebastian Vettel also lost out on some running as he was forced to stop on track. The German complained of a lack of power and pulled off at Turn 8, and when he inspected the car Vettel found the left rear tyre was not properly attached.

Vettel was 0.2s slower than team-mate Kimi Raikkonen during the session, but did make a mistake on his supersoft tyre lap which cost him the opportunity to improve his time, meaning his best lap was set on the softs.

Another Ferrari-powered team also found itself in trouble late in the session as Romain Grosjean suffered two problems in the Haas. Grosjean ran out on to the kerb exiting Turn 12 and his front wing appeared to fail, dropping at the front of the car and leaving some debris on the circuit. Haas also suffered a front wing failure on the first day of pre-season testing.

Grosjean was able to return to the pits and take on a new wing but his next run saw him forced to pit after smoke started emerging from the rear of his car exiting Turn 13.

With Button and Verstappen both in the top four, Red Bull and Williams both featured in the top ten in what was another close session Verstappen in fourth place was exactly one second faster than 15th-placed Sergio Perez.

Stoffel Vandoorne enjoyed a trouble-free second session and was 11th quickest in the second McLaren, 0.7s slower than team-mate Button. FP2 also saw encouraging signs for Manor with Pascal Wehrlein in 19th - ahead of both Saubers - and just 0.3s adrift of Jolyon Palmer's Renault despite not running the supersoft tyre.

AS IT HAPPENED: Bahrain Grand Prix FP2

FP1 REPORT: Rosberg fastest as Mercedes sets blistering pace

Romain Grosjean's exclusive F1i column - Bahrain

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Pos Driver Team Time Laps
01 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:31.001 38
02 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:31.242 32
03 Jenson Button McLaren 1:32.281 32
04 Max Verstappen Toro Rosso 1:32.406 31
05 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:32.452 38
06 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:32.650 26
07 Daniil Kvyat Red Bull 1:32.703 34
08 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:32.792 39
09 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 1:32.870 23
10 Felipe Massa Williams 1:32.873 36
11 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren 1:32.999 30
12 Esteban Gutierrez Haas 1:33.129 31
13 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso 1:33.177 36
14 Romain Grosjean Haas 1:33.384 23
15 Sergio Perez Force India 1:33.406 35
16 Kevin Magnussen Renault 1:33.447 34
17 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:33.570 37
18 Jolyon Palmer Renault 1:33.640 35
19 Pascal Wehrlein Manor 1:33.953 21
20 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1:34.224 31
21 Felipe Nasr Sauber 1:34.477 34
22 Rio Haryanto Manor 1:34.562 33
Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.

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