Prac Two: Hamilton edges ahead

Editor

Mercedes picked up where they left off on Friday afternoon, however, in FP2 it was Lewis Hamilton who set the pace ahead of Nico Rosberg.

It was a busy start to the afternoon’s second practice at the Red Bull Ring as drivers sought to take advantage of the conditions.

Marcus Ericsson set the first lap time of FP2 but within five minutes was down in 11th place as times came flooding through.

Jenson Button and Daniil Kvyat were quickly down into the 1:11s, trading fastest lap times while Kimi Raikkonen also got involved in the early tussle.

Fernando Alonso was the next to lead the way and the first into the 1:10s as he posted a 1:10.899 only to pipped by Nico Rosberg. The German, on his third flying lap of the afternoon, clocked a 1:10.835 while Lewis Hamilton slotted into second, 0.006s down.

Hamilton then went even quicker, putting in fastest sector times in the first and third to cross the line with a 1:10.525, 0.310s up on his team-mate. He shaved 0.065s off on his next lap. Rosberg closed the gap to 0.039s.

Swapping to the supersoft tyres, Hamilton continued to lead the way. The British driver posted a 1:09.652, 0.7s up on Rosberg’s supersoft lap. The German put in another run and although it was quicker, he remained second, 0.377s down.

Alonso’s supersoft flying lap put him back up into third place behind the Mercedes duo and ahead of the Williams pairing of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa. Sebastian Vettel improved to sixth on his supersoft run.

The final 30 minutes of FP2 saw the drivers switch to heavier fuel loads and a few drops of rain falling. That cost the drivers a bit of grip although once again it looked as if the Mercedes driver had the edge over long runs.

McLaren and Force India especially seemed to struggle with their tyres while Alonso, Vettel and Massa appeared to the most likely to challenge the Mercedes drivers over a long run.

Times
01 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:09.542 37 laps
02 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:09.919 +0.377 45 laps
03 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:10.470 +0.928 36 laps
04 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:10.519 +0.977 42 laps
05 Felipe Massa Williams 1:10.521 +0.979 37 laps
06 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 1:10.807 +1.265 35 laps
07 Jenson Button McLaren 1:10.813 +1.271 44 laps
08 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 1:10.920 +1.378 32 laps
09 Kevin Magnussen McLaren 1:10.936 +1.394 44 laps
10 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1:10.972 +1.430 35 laps
11 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:10.974 +1.432 42 laps
12 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:11.261 +1.719 41 laps
13 Sergio Perez Force India 1:11.296 +1.754 31 laps
14 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 1:11.491 +1.949 38 laps
15 Pastor Maldonado Lotus 1:11.765 +2.223 29 laps
16 Adrian Sutil Sauber 1:11.806 +2.264 37 laps
17 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:11.935 +2.393 37 laps
18 Max Chilton Marussia 1:12.229 +2.687 39 laps
19 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1:12.262 +2.720 43 laps
20 Jules Bianchi Marussia 1:12.279 +2.737 32 laps
21 Kamui Kobayashi Caterham 1:12.937 +3.395 24 laps
22 Marcus Ericsson Caterham 1:13.596 +4.054 44 laps