Practice 2 Report - The 21 Club

Lewis Hamilton beat his Mercedes teammate by 0.021 of a second in Free Practice 2. As in FP1, Sebastian Vettel was third in his Ferrari ahead of Force India teammates Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg.

The ambient temperature at the start of the 90-minute session was 74 degrees Fahrenheit (23 degrees Centigrade) and the track temperature was 93 degrees Fahrenheit (34 degrees Centigrade).

The line-up for the weekend was: Mercedes “ Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. Red Bull Renault “ Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat. Williams Mercedes “ Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas. Ferrari “ Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen. McLaren Honda “ Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button. Force India Mercedes “ Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez. Toro Rosso Renault “ Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz. Lotus Mercedes “ Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado. Marussia Ferrari “ Will Stevens and Roberto Merhi. Sauber “ Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr.

Stevens and Alonso were the first out for FP2. Stevens set the first time “ 1:38.345. But it was Raikkonen who did the first serious lap time in 1:26.684. Then Vettel turned a 1:26.548.

8 minutes into the session, Hulkenberg went quickest with a time of 1:26.439.

11 minutes into the session, Ricciardo drove slowly to the pits with his car using first gear only. Meanwhile Vettel was back on top with a 1:26.252.

15 minutes into the session, Hamilton did a 1:25.683 and Rosberg turned a 1:25.617, and Mercedes was back on top just like that.

17 minutes into the session, Grosjean went bouncing off the track at Turn 10 and then later at Turn 9 and continued.

21 minutes into the session, Hamilton improved to 1:25.133 and Rosberg to a 1:25.451.

25 minutes into the session, some of the drivers including Perez started running on the soft tires.

28 minutes into the session, Vettel set a 1:25.136 on the softs, so he was still slower than Hamilton's time set on the medium tires.

30 minutes into the session, the top 10 were: Hamilton, Vettel, Hulkenberg, Rosberg, Raikkonen, Massa, Maldonado, Bottas, Sainz and Grosjean. Then Vettel did a 1:25.038 to go out front.

35 minutes into the session, Verstappen spun way off the track at Turn 8 but managed to keep going.

37 minutes into the session, Hamilton slammed in 1:24.279 on the softs. So now Hamilton was ahead of Vettel, Hulkenberg, Rosberg and Grosjean.

42 minutes into the session, Rosberg clocked a 1:24.300 and he was back in second place.

Midway through FP2 the top six were: Hamilton, Rosberg, Vettel, Hulkenberg, Raikkonen and Grosjean. Meanwhile Kvyat went off at Turn 11 for a third time.

With 36 minutes remaining in the session, Perez leaped up to fourth.

With 30 minutes remaining in the session, the top 10 were: Hamilton, Rosberg, Vettel, Hulkenberg, Raikkonen, Grosjean, Maldonado, Bottas and Massa.

The teams now began to do long runs to check out the tire wear. With 23 minutes remaining in the session, everybody was on track except Button and Kvyat.

The top 10 at the end of FP2 remained the same.