US GP: Rosberg quickest in FP2, Ricciardo close behind

Rosberg lapped in 1m37.358s on fresh supersoft tyres, with Ricciardo getting to within 0.194s of his fastest time.

Hamilton was third quickest in the second Mercedes, 0.291s slower than his teammate.

Sebastian Vettel was fourth quickest for Ferrari, ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

Story of the session

Haas F1’s Romain Grosjean set the early pace at 1m40.848s, before Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen laid down 1m38.930s – having worked very hard to keep McLaren’s Fernando Alonso behind him on his out lap – which was then beaten by Vettel on 1m38.892s to make it an early Ferrari 1-2, just 0.038s apart.

Verstappen ran the soft for the first time this weekend, and went P1 on 1m38.541s, but that was quickly eclipsed by Rosberg, on used softs, on 1m38.082s.

Hamilton ran the medium tyre initially, running wide at Turn 1 on his first flying lap. His first proper lap was 1m38.394s, 0.312s away from his teammate.

Ricciardo slotted into P4, just behind Verstappen but two tenths clear of Vettel and Raikkonen.

Supersoft runs set the order

Raikkonen took an early supersoft run, but an incredibly scrappy lap was capped by him flying off the road at Turn 19. “I don’t know why the car is very bad at the rear,” he moaned.

Vettel leapt to second on his supersoft lap on 1m38.178s – 0.096s off Rosberg’s used-soft time.

Verstappen improved to third on supersofts on 1m38.258s, 0.176s off Rosberg’s time, but Nico then shifted the bar further away to 1m37.358s on supersofts.

Ricciardo moved up to second with 1m37.552s, just 0.194s with Hamilton only third on 1m37.649s, 0.291s off Rosberg.

Vettel slipped to fourth, ahead of Verstappen. Nico Hulkenberg was sixth for Force India, just 0.06s clear of teammate Sergio Perez, both over a second from Rosberg’s pace.

Jenson Button pipped McLaren teammate Alonso by 0.088s for eighth, with Raikkonen rounding out the top 10 after his struggles on the fastest tyre.

Carlos Sainz was 11^th fastest for Toro Rosso, ahead of Renault’s Kevin Magnussen.

Sauber’s Felipe Nasr was 13^th, ahead of the fastest Williams of Valtteri Bottas. Daniil Kvyat (Toto Rosso), Felipe Massa (Williams) and Jolyon Palmer (Renault) were next up.

Romain Grosjean was the quickest Haas down in 18^th, ahead of an impressive Esteban Ocon (Manor), Esteban Gutierrez (Haas), Marcus Ericsson (Sauber) and a distant Pascal Wehrlein (Manor).

Spins and red flag

Palmer spun through the gravel at Turn 8, while Ocon spun off at Turn 17 but managed to reverse out of the gravel. Sainz suffered a big spin in the closing moments of the session at Turn 18.

The session was also briefly red-flagged with 35 minutes to go to retrieve debris from the Esses.

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Engine	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval
1	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	Mercedes	33	1'37.358
2	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	TAG	33	1'37.552	0.194	0.194
3	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	Mercedes	32	1'37.649	0.291	0.097
4	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	Ferrari	35	1'38.178	0.820	0.529
5	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	TAG	27	1'38.258	0.900	0.080
6	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	Mercedes	32	1'38.508	1.150	0.250
7	Sergio Perez	Force India	Mercedes	31	1'38.568	1.210	0.060
8	Jenson Button	McLaren	Honda	29	1'38.713	1.355	0.145
9	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	Honda	30	1'38.801	1.443	0.088
10	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	Ferrari	31	1'38.865	1.507	0.064
11	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Toro Rosso	Ferrari	31	1'38.971	1.613	0.106
12	Kevin Magnussen	Renault	Renault	23	1'39.159	1.801	0.188
13	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	Ferrari	28	1'39.189	1.831	0.030
14	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	Mercedes	34	1'39.197	1.839	0.008
15	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	Ferrari	36	1'39.202	1.844	0.005
16	Felipe Massa	Williams	Mercedes	30	1'39.281	1.923	0.079
17	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	Renault	34	1'39.455	2.097	0.174
18	Romain Grosjean	Haas	Ferrari	24	1'39.554	2.196	0.099
19	Esteban Ocon	Manor	Mercedes	27	1'40.086	2.728	0.532
20	Esteban Gutierrez	Haas	Ferrari	26	1'40.114	2.756	0.028
21	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	Ferrari	28	1'40.219	2.861	0.105
22	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor	Mercedes	31	1'41.131	3.773	0.912