Nico Rosberg continued to set the early pace in Bahrain, beating Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton to the top of the timesheet in the weekend’s second practice session by just over two tenths of a second.

Sebastian Vettel hit trouble late in the session, however, with the Ferrari driver stopping his car at the side of the track.

After showing impressive pace in the first session to eclipse Hamilton by half a second, Rosberg was again to the fore as the sun went down at the Sakhir circuit. The German set a best time of time of 1:31.001 to beat Hamilton by 0.241s. Rosberg’s time, set on the supersoft tyre, was over four tenths of a second quicker than the track record set in 2005 by McLaren’s Pedro de la Rosa in 2005.

Third place in the session went to Jenson Button in an apparently much improved McLaren.

“Today was good – FP1 and FP2 were both competitive, and it’s nice to  have a car that feels good beneath me, one we can really work with and  see good gains,” said the 2009 champion, who finished just over second behind Hamilton. “It was only practice today, but it was a lot more fun than normal. High-fuel runs weren’t too bad either – overall it’s been a positive day.

“I think when you’re third in FP2 and it’s not because of changeable conditions or anything, you’ve got to be thinking about getting into Q3 – it has to be the aim,” he added.

Toro Rosso’s Max Verstappen was fourth quickest, with Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen slotting into fifth position, almost two tenths of a second ahead of sixth-placed Vettel.

Vettel’s evening ended early, too, as late in the session the German pulled over at Turn 8, complaining of a loss of drive. The problem was not significant, however, as it quickly became apparent that the left rear tyre had not been properly attached.

The deficit to Raikkonen was also less significant, as Vettel has lost time on his supersoft run due to an error and therefore set his best time on medium tyres.

Seventh place in the session went to Red Bull Racing’s Daniil Kvyat, with Williams’ Valtteri Bottas eighth ahead of Daniel Ricciardo in the second Red Bull.

Felipe Massa was tenth ahead of McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne, who is standing in this weekend for the injured Fernando Alonso. The young Belgian ended the session seventh tenths of a second adrift of team-mate Button but added 30 valuable laps to his afternoon tally of 25.

Elsewhere, there was trouble for Haas’ Romain Grosjean. Late in the session the French driver hit the kerbs hard exiting Turn 12 and the left side of his front wing broke up, leaving enough debris on the circuit for the Virtual Safety Car to be briefly deployed.

Grosjean returned to the pits for repairs but his next run ended early as smoke began to appear from the rear of his car and he was forced back to the pits.

2016 Bahrain Grand Prix – Free Practice 2
1 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:31.001 38
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:31.242 32
3 Jenson Button McLaren 1:32.281 32
4 Max Verstappen Toro Rosso 1:32.406 31
5 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:32.452 38
6 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:32.650 26
7 Daniil Kvyat Red Bull Racing 1:32.703 34
8 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:32.792 39
9 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 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