Hamilton strikes back, Vettel splits Mercedes duo in FP2

Rosberg set the early pace on fresh hard tyres, but Hamilton blitzed that time by 1.249s on a 1m27.826s after 15 minutes.

The session was red flagged soon after, as the entire rear bodywork exploded away from Romain Grosjean’s car while his Lotus was flat-out on the start-finish straight, with its DRS open.

“I lost something in the straightline,” he reported, trundling back to the pits with the rear-end of his car in tatters. The team blamed two fasteners on the top side of the bodywork for causing the issue.

Drivers complained throughout the session of a lack of grip, as track temperature soared in the afternoon heat of the Spanish spring.

Vettel was the first frontrunner to sample the medium tyre, just before the half-hour mark. He beat Hamilton’s hard-tyre best by 0.566s to 1m27.260s, but complained of “a lot of vibrations on this set”.

Kimi Raikkonen only just beat Hamilton’s hard-tyred time on his third lap on medium tyres.

Hamilton changed front suspension settings before his medium-tyre run, and found 0.408s on the medium tyres, despite a lock-up into Turn 10. His 1m26.852s was 0.034s off Rosberg’s fastest time from FP1, set in cooler conditions.

Rosberg’s first medium-tyre lap was compromised by running wide at the Turn 10 hairpin, and complained of “rejected downshifts” over the radio, so was 0.356s off Vettel’s time. He too concentrated on front suspension tweaks in this session.

The session ended in the order: Hamilton, Vettel, Rosberg and Raikkonen.

Red Bull’s Daniel Kvyat went fifth fastest on 1m27.943s, as teammate Daniel Ricciardo missed most of the session while his engine was being changed. Riccardo completed a couple of laps near the end, but was only 13th fastest.

Max Verstappen continued Toro Rosso’s strong showing so far by going sixth fastest on 1m28.017s.

Jenson Button also impressed for McLaren in seventh, and found time for a front wing comparison during the session as teams worked on their update packages.

Williams were eighth and 10^th respectively with Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa, sandwiching the second Toro Rosso of top Spaniard Carlos Sainz Jr.

Fernando Alonso was 11^th in the second McLaren, and provided the comic turn of the session when querying whether his ERS was charging: “Maybe you have a virus in your computer because it's not charging anything.”

The bottom half of the field was in the order: Lotus, Sauber, Force India and Marussia. Will Stevens went off briefly at Turn 5.