Hamilton Pips Fired-Up Rosberg in Free Practice at Austin's COTA

Lewis Hamilton edged team mate Nico Rosberg by the narrowest of margins after Mercedes once again dominated the Friday free practice sessions ahead of Sunday's United States Grand Prix.

It took two bites of the cherry for Hamilton who was five hundredths of a second slower than Rosberg after their first lap on Pirelli's soft tyre before finding the time he needed to score another psychological blow on his second quick lap.

By contrast, Rosberg, along with many drivers, couldn't improve on his second lap but was still over a second clear of the best of the rest led by Fernando Alonso.

Both Hamilton and Rosberg reported minor gear selection issues and Hamilton ended his session early with plenty of activity around his car in the garage as the session drew to a close investigating what the team afterwards described as a minor hydraulic problem.

Alonso's quick lap came after most had set their times, the Spaniard over three tenths of a second faster than team-mate Kimi Raikkonen's in sixth place.

Fourth fastest was Daniel Ricciardo, 1.3s behind Hamilton. The Australian had a lot of work to do for Red Bull, his team-mate Sebastian Vettel confined to the garage for much of the session as his team performed a gearbox change.

With little interest in setting up for qualifying, Vettel focused on high-fuel load runs when he finally arrived on circuit, ending the day slowest of all 18th.

Felipe Massa was the quicker of the two Williams drivers in fifth, benefiting  from getting two full sessions of running. Valtteri Bottas ended the day 11th having sat out FP1 to allow test driver Felipe Nasr a very impressive run.

Daniel Kvyat headed the Toro Rosso runners in both sessions ending FP2 seventh fastest, six places ahead of Jean Eric Vergne having finished the first session fourth, six spots ahead of impressive rookie Max Verstappen.

The McLarens set the early pace on the medium tyre but faded on the soft tyre, Kevin Magnussen and Jenson Button ending the day eighth and ninth with the Danish driver five hundredths faster than his English team mate.

Nico Hulkenberg was first of the Force Indias in 11th, just over a tenth and a half slower than Magnussen and four places better than Sergio Perez.

Romain Grosjean in 12th provided much of the entertainment once more, his Lotus proving a real handful as he shrugged off a big spin in the first section to come up with a time just over a tenth faster than 15th fastest Pastor Maldonado who also had at least one off track moment.

The Saubers of Adrian Sutil and Esteban Guttierez were 16th and 17th ahead of only Vettel and without the comfort of the Caterham and Marussias behind them on the time sheets this week.

As in session one, at the conclusion of timed activity, the cars performed another test of the FIA's virtual safety car test

2014 United States Grand Prix - Free Practice 2

1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:39.085 18

2 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:39.088 0.003 34

3 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:40.189 1.104 29

4 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 1:40.390 1.305 30

5 Felipe Massa Williams 1:40.457 1.372 36

6 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:40.543 1.458 32

7 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:40.631 1.546 34

8 Kevin Magnussen McLaren 1:40.641 1.556 38

9 Jenson Button McLaren 1:40.698 1.613 36

10 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:40.800 1.715 25

11 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:40.828 1.743 37

12 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1:41.054 1.969 31

13 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1:41.110 2.025 36

14 Sergio Perez Force India 1:41.123 2.038 35

15 Pastor Maldonado Lotus 1:41.158 2.073 37

16 Adrian Sutil Sauber 1:41.332 2.247 33

17 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 1:41.420 2.335 34

18 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 1:43.980 4.895

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments