Hamilton leads Vettel by 0.25s in FP2 in Canada

Lewis Hamilton continued to set the pace during practice for the Canadian Grand Prix, beating Sebastian Vettel by 0.25s in FP2.

Having been quickest in the opening session, Hamilton dipped below last year's pole position time by 0.2s with a lap of 1:14.212 on ultrasofts. Despite the impressive pace, Hamilton actually saw his advantage trimmed by Ferrari compared to Friday morning, with Vettel's time also coming on the ultrasoft tyre.

Nico Rosberg was third fastest but over half a second slower than his Mercedes team-mate, with the majority of the deficit coming in the opening two sectors. However, Hamilton's improvement in pace ensured the next closest challengers - the Red Bull pair of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo - were the best part of a second off the pace.

Jenson Button was the surprise package of the session, bouncing back from a difficult FP1 to finish seventh quickest. While late to emerge after a power unit change, Button still managed to post a time of 1:15.213, leaving him with an identical time to Valtteri Bottas in sixth but below him on the times having been second to set it.

The 2009 world champion was 1.001s off the pace of Hamilton on a circuit which Button predicted McLaren could be surprisingly strong at. He was also 0.021s ahead of Kimi Raikkonen, although Vettel displayed the true pace of the Ferrari.

Nico Hulkenberg and Carlos Sainz completed the top ten ahead of Fernando Alonso, Sergio Perez and Felipe Massa. Massa managed 44 laps in FP2 following his crash this morning which Williams attributed to a DRS fault.

It was a very close session as just 0.4s covered Verstappen in fourth all the way down to Daniil Kvyat in 14th. Much of the focus of the long runs was on tyre life, with Rosberg managing to complete 29 laps on one set of ultrasoft tyres.

While FP1 saw times posted on a variety of different tyre compounds, all of the fastest laps in the second session were set on the purple-marked ultrasoft tyre.

Turn 1 proved tricky for a number of drivers during the afternoon, with Kvyat twice running off track at the opening corner and Romain Grosjean similarly cutting across the run-off area. Both Kvyat and team-mate Carlos Sainz brushed the wall at Turn 5 but neither driver sustained damage.

AS IT HAPPENED: Canadian Grand Prix FP2