Spanish GP: Rosberg tops FP2 as Raikkonen splits Mercedes
Championship leader Nico Rosberg returned to the top of the times in second practice for the Spanish Grand Prix.
Photo by: XPB Images
The Mercedes driver finished with a best time of 1:23.922, less than half a tenth of a second quicker than what Sebastian Vettel had managed in the morning session.
Rosberg was 0.254 seconds quicker than Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, who split the Mercedes dyo as Lewis Hamilton had to settle for third position, over seven tenths off his teammate's best.
Vettel was fourth this time, with Toro Rosso's Carlos Sainz completing the top five in a promising showing in front of his home crowd.
Daniel Ricciardo was again the fastest of the Red Bull drivers in sixth, with teammate Max Verstappen winding up eighth behind McLaren's Fernando Alonso.
Force India duo Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg completed the top 10.
In his second outing in the Toro Rosso, Daniil Kvyat finished down in 15th, over a second behind Sainz.
Raikkonen was quick to set a time, moving to the top spot five minutes in with a run on medium tyres, improving his best on the following lap before Vettel jumped to first with a 1:26.306.
Red flag
But the action came to a halt after just 10 minutes when Renault's Jolyon Palmer saw his left rear tyre explode at the end of the main straight.
The Briton, who had not run in FP1, managed to keep the car under control before parking it, but the session was red-flagged to recover the Renault and pick up the debris.
After over an hour lost, Palmer was able to run again late in the day.
The session resumed after less than 10 minutes and Hamilton moved to first place straight away, the Mercedes driver still running on mediums.
Ferrari was again among the first teams to switch to softs, Raikkonen retaking P1 with a 1:24.176 before the half-hour mark.
Meanwhile, Jenson Button suffered problems with his car, his engine stopping as he was entering the pitlane. Luckily for him, he managed to coast back to the McLaren garage.
Button eventually returned to the track, but having lost a lot of time as his mechanics worked on the problem.
Teammate Fernando Alonso also lost track time after the plank on the floor of his car had to be replaced as he had damaged it by going off.
Haas' Esteban Gutierrez was another man to hit trouble, the Mexican suffering electronics issues that kept him in the garage for a long time.
Vettel made it a Ferrari 1-2 with 50 minutes left, but was nearly a second slower than his teammate, as the Mercedes finally opted to try the soft tyres.
Rosberg was the first of the Mercedes duo to go out with the yellow-marked rubber, the German immediately jumping to first place with the fastest time of the weekend so far, 1:23.922.
Hamilton's first run on softs produced a lap that was over seven tenths of a second slower than Rosberg's, the world champion hitting traffic at the end of a messy lap.
With less than 15 minutes to go, Raikkonen reported rain was hitting the circuit, although it was not enough to make much difference to the grip levels.
Free practice 2 results
Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:23.922 | 35 | |
2 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1:24.176 | +0.254 | 31 |
3 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:24.641 | +0.719 | 27 |
4 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1:25.017 | +1.095 | 35 |
5 | Carlos Sainz Jr. | Toro Rosso | 1:25.131 | +1.209 | 39 |
6 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull Racing | 1:25.194 | +1.272 | 37 |
7 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 1:25.342 | +1.420 | 31 |
8 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing | 1:25.375 | +1.453 | 31 |
9 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 1:25.437 | +1.515 | 32 |
10 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | 1:25.453 | +1.531 | 35 |
11 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 1:25.708 | +1.786 | 30 |
12 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 1:25.893 | +1.971 | 20 |
13 | Romain Grosjean | Haas F1 Team | 1:25.899 | +1.977 | 33 |
14 | Kevin Magnussen | Renault F1 Team | 1:26.244 | +2.322 | 40 |
15 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 1:26.375 | +2.453 | 44 |
16 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 1:26.491 | +2.569 | 36 |
17 | Jolyon Palmer | Renault F1 Team | 1:26.770 | +2.848 | 16 |
18 | Pascal Wehrlein | Manor Racing | 1:26.960 | +3.038 | 40 |
19 | Rio Haryanto | Manor Racing | 1:27.252 | +3.330 | 39 |
20 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber | 1:27.812 | +3.890 | 40 |
21 | Esteban Gutierrez | Haas F1 Team | 1:28.205 | +4.283 | 9 |
22 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 1:28.501 | +4.579 | 42 |
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