Rosberg maintains advantage over Hamilton in FP2
Nico Rosberg maintained his clear advantage over team-mate Lewis Hamilton during FP2 for the German Grand Prix as Sebastian Vettel closed the gap.
Having been over 0.3s clear of Hamilton in FP1 at Hockenheim, the supersoft tyre runs saw Rosberg slightly extend that advantage to 0.394s. Perhaps importantly, neither Mercedes driver went quicker than their first practice times, which saw Rosberg post a 1:15.517, compared to his 1:15.614 in the second session.
Sebastian Vettel had been over a second slower than Rosberg in the opening session but closed that gap to just 0.594s in FP2, exactly 0.2s adrift of Hamilton’s best time. Vettel completed his flying lap later than all of the other front runners, before being unhappy with the handling of his car over a long run.
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Max Verstappen, Daniel Ricciardo and Kimi Raikkonen were fourth, fifth and sixth quickest respectively, with the trio separated by just 0.056s at the end of the session. Raikkonen was later held up by Felipe Massa on his long run and had to force the Williams wide at Turn 8 to get ahead of his former Ferrari team-mate.
Force India had run the medium tyre throughout FP1 but finally showed its true pace with a supersoft lap from Nico Hulkenberg which put the German seventh in the standings ahead of Jenson Button. Button was only able to complete 16 laps, however, as he required a trip to the medical centre as a result of being irritated by something in the cockpit.
Sergio Perez was ninth in the second Force India, ahead of Fernando Alonso in tenth. Alonso also completed limited mileage, with only Button and Romain Grosjean (13) completing fewer laps than the 21 Alonso managed.
Grosjean had a difficult session which started with a spin at the Turn 6 hairpin, and ended prematurely as he took up place on the pit wall for the second half of the session.
Williams again struggled, with Valtteri Bottas 13th and Felipe Massa down in 15th, but there was encouragement for another Mercedes-powered team as Pascal Wehrlein finished the session 19th quickest, ahead of a Renault and Sauber and in touch with Esteban Gutierrez, Kevin Magnussen and Marcus Ericsson ahead of him.
Drivers had to be wary of track limits at Turn 1 throughout the session, with FIA race director Charlie Whiting clamping down on drivers running wide after 93 incidents of a car leaving the circuit in FP1.
AS IT HAPPENED: German Grand Prix – FP2
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01
Nico Rosberg
Mercedes
1:15.614
43
02
Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes
1:16.008
36
03
Sebastian Vettel
Ferrari
1:16.208
39
04
Max Verstappen
Red Bull
1:16.456
40
05
Daniel Ricciardo
Red Bull
1:16.490
38
06
Kimi Raikkonen
Ferrari
1:16.512
45
07
Nico Hulkenberg
Force India
1:16.781
43
08
Jenson Button
McLaren
1:17.087
16
09
Sergio Perez
Force India
1:17.148
44
11
Fernando Alonso
McLaren
1:17.225
21
11
Carlos Sainz
Toro Rosso
1:17.342
32
12
Daniil Kvyat
Toro Rosso
1:17.367
38
13
Valtteri Bottas
Williams
1:17.425
44
14
Romain Grosjean
Haas
1:17.602
13
15
Felipe Massa
Williams
1:17.686
40
16
Esteban Gutierrez
Haas
1:18.005
42
17
Kevin Magnussen
Renault
1:18.056
46
18
Marcus Ericsson
Sauber
1:18.130
28
19
Pascal Wehrlein
Manor
1:18.193
42
20
Jolyon Palmer
Renault
1:18.313
47
21
Rio Haryanto
Manor
1:18.591
47
22
Felipe Nasr
Sauber
1:19.295
41