Pastor Maldonado continued his poor form in the second practice session in Shanghai, with a wobble off track, a significant lock-up on both front tyres, and then a crash in the pit lane. He ended up in the wall at the pit lane entry, ending his session early.

Meanwhile, Alonso kept the pace up from the first session, but couldn't hold off the fight from the two Mercedes drivers. He was fastest early on, but had to settle for second after Hamilton put in a stunning lap - the Brit recovering from a lack of running in FP1.