Spanish GP: Rosberg tops FP2 as Raikkonen splits Mercedes

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