Practice 2 Report - R&R

Nico Rosberg and Kimi Raikkonen were the fastest two drivers in Free Practice 2. Rosberg's Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton was fourth and Raikkonen's Ferrari teammate Sebastian Vettel was third.

The ambient temperature at the start of the 90-minute session was 72 degrees Fahrenheit (22 degrees Centigrade) and the track temperature was 115 degrees Fahrenheit (46 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.

Ericsson was the first out.

6 minutes into the session, Grosjean clocked a 1:41.778.

7 minutes into the session, Ericcson did a lap in 1:40.537, but Hulkenberg beat that with a 1:37.094, and then Sainz did a 1:36.523.

9 minutes into the session, and now the Mercedes drivers were on a roll with Hamilton turning a 1:35.055 and Rosberg a 1:35.513.

All the drivers were using the hard Pirelli tires at this time. Vettel was now third after setting a 1:36.271, but he didn't stay there for long as Hulkenberg set a time of 1:36.171.

13 minutes into the session, Hamilton got down to a 1:34.877. The track was slower in FP2 than FP1.

17 minutes into the session, Grosjean went into the gravel at Turn 8. Out came the red flags.

The top 10 at this time were: Hamilton, Rosberg, Vettel, Hulkenberg, Sainz, Verstappen, Raikkonen, Perez, Massa and Maldonado.

23 minutes into the session, FP2 was restarted.

28 minutes into the session, Alonso had a long trip through the gravel trap at Turn 7. Kvyat was now in second.

30 minutes into the session, Button complained that the handling of his car was horrible.

35 minutes into the session, Rosberg started lapping on the soft tires as did Vettel. Their times were 1:34.155 and 1:34.522 respectively.

38 minutes into the session, Hamilton set a 1:344.621 on the mediums, only good enough for third place. Kvyat was fourth, Verstappen fifth and Sainz sixth.

With 41 minutes remaining in the session, only Kvyat and Hulkenberg, now sixth, were on the track. Kvyat was now on the medium tires. But he could not improve on his time. But Raikkonen did, moving into fifth.

With 32 minutes remaining in the session, Raikkonen popped up to second place.

With 27 minutes remaining in the session, the top 10 were: Rosberg, Raikkonen, Vettel, Hamilton, Kvyat, Ricciardo, Verstappen, Hulkenberg, Sainz and Massa.

As usual, the teams and drivers now worked on long run race simulations for the remainder of FP2.

With 17 minutes remaining in the session, Merhi stranded his Marussia on a curb and the red flags came out just as he got the car going again.

With 13 minutes remaining in the session, the green lights came on, and the long runs were resumed. With 3 minutes to go, all 20 drivers were on track. The top 10 remained the same.