FP2: Rosberg leads Mercedes 1-2
Nico Rosberg topped the timesheets as Mercedes claimed yet another 1-2 in Friday’s second practice for the German GP.
With the track temperature up 40’C, and a threat of rain in the air, Friday’s second practice got off to a busy start.
Lewis Hamilton set the pace with a 1:17.067 on the soft tyres, 0.348s up on Rosberg while Daniel Ricciardo was third. The Red Bull driver was just half a second down on the soft tyres.
The drivers all made an early swap to the supersoft Pirellis due to the weather forecast with Rosberg going P1 with a 1:15.614.
A scruffy lap from Hamilton in which he ran a bit wide and also locked up at the hairpin left him down in second place, 0.394s off the pace.
Sebastian Vettel was the closest challenger to the Mercedes drivers as his supersoft lap put him 0.596s down.
Max Verstappen was next in line ahead of Ricciardo and Kimi Raikkonen. The Finn was the final driver to get with a second of Rosberg’s P1 time.
Putting in long runs in the latter half of the session, both Ferrari and Red Bull showed good race-pace, which bodes well for Sunday’s grand prix.
Nico Hulkenberg in the Force India finished the afternoon seventh fastest ahead of Jenson Button and Sergio Perez.
Birthday boy Fernando Alonso completed the top ten.
The forecast rain never came.
Romain Grosjean’s session ended after 13 laps with a suspected leak.
Times
1 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1’15.614 43 laps
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1’16.008 0.394 36 laps
3 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1’16.208 0.594 39 laps
4 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1’16.456 0.842 40 laps
5 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 1’16.490 0.876 38 laps
6 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1’16.512 0.898 45 laps
7 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1’16.781 1.167 43 laps
8 Jenson Button McLaren 1’17.087 1.473 16 laps
9 Sergio Perez Force India 1’17.148 1.534 44 laps
10 Fernando Alonso McLaren 1’17.225 1.611 21 laps
11 Carlos Sainz Jr. Toro Rosso 1’17.342 1.728 32 laps
12 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1’17.367 1.753 38 laps
13 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1’17.425 1.811 44 laps
14 Romain Grosjean Haas 1’17.602 1.988 13 laps
15 Felipe Massa Williams 1’17.686 2.072 40 laps
16 Esteban Gutierrez Haas 1’18.005 2.391 42 laps
17 Kevin Magnussen Renault 1’18.056 2.442 46 laps
18 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1’18.130 2.516 28 laps
19 Pascal Wehrlein Manor 1’18.193 2.579 42 laps
20 Jolyon Palmer Renault 1’18.313 2.699 47 laps
21 Rio Haryanto Manor 1’18.591 2.977 47 laps
22 Felipe Nasr Sauber 1’19.295 3.681 41 laps