Mercedes has dominated the second practice session in Austria, this time it was Lewis Hamilton taking the honours.
Hamilton finished 0.370 seconds ahead of team-mate Nico Rosberg, but almost one second clear of Fernando Alonso in the third-placed Ferrari. Only the Mercedes were able to break into the 1m09s range.
Average conditions saw the threat of rain loom around the circuit along with fast changing winds, which played havoc with drivers trying to get a fast lap in.
Track conditions remained quite slippery, even with the running of FP1 and a free practice of GP2.
Marcus Ericsson and Adrian Sutil were the first drivers out on circuit, which was no surprise given that both of them ran into difficulties during the first practice session.
Drivers were still getting to grips with what is a new circuit to most of the field, trying to get their set up right to avoid problems in qualifying. The whole field except Mercedes seemed to struggle with traction out of Turn One.
Jules Bianchi was the first to put on the super soft tyres after 35 minutes of running, and was followed shortly after by the front running teams. The gap between the soft and super soft tyres seems to be around 0.6s – 0.8s.
Williams finished the practice session much better than FP1, with Valtteri Bottas in fourth and Felipe Massa in fifth. The pair notched up a combined total of 83 laps.
Red Bull Racing also saw a big improvement as both of their cars finished in the top 10. Sebastian Vettel was sixth while his team-mate Daniel Ricciardo was eighth. Although there was only a tenth of a second between them, they were well over a second off Mercedes’ pace.
Kamui Kobayashi was forced to end his session early when he encountered brake problems in his Caterham. He finished the session 21st and seven-tenths ahead of his team-mate Marcus Ericsson, who doubled Kobayashi’s completed laps after his FP1 program was kept to less than 10 laps.
Jenson Button finished seventh in his McLaren, however reported to his team that they have the same balance and set-up problems as they had two weeks ago (in Canada).
His team-mate Kevin Magnussen was ninth fastest, one-tenth of a second behind while Jean-Eric Vergne rounded out the top 10 a further tenth of a second adrift.
2014 Austrian Formula 1 Grand Prix – Free Practice 2 Results:
Driver | Team / Entry | Time | Gap | Laps | ||
1. | Lewis Hamilton | ![]() |
Mercedes AMG Petronas F1W05 | 1:09.542 | 37 | |
2. | Nico Rosberg | ![]() |
Mercedes AMG Petronas F1W05 | 1:09.919 | + 0.377 | 50 |
3. | Fernando Alonso | ![]() |
Scuderia Ferrari F14T | 1:10.470 | + 0.928 | 40 |
4. | Valtteri Bottas | ![]() |
Williams Martini Racing Mercedes FW36 | 1:10.519 | + 0.977 | 44 |
5. | Felipe Massa | ![]() |
Williams Martini Racing Mercedes FW36 | 1:10.521 | + 0.979 | 39 |
6. | Sebastian Vettel | ![]() |
Infiniti Red Bull Racing Renault RB10 | 1:10.807 | + 1.265 | 39 |
7. | Jenson Button | ![]() |
McLaren Mercedes MP4-29 | 1:10.813 | + 1.271 | 44 |
8. | Daniel Ricciardo | ![]() |
Infiniti Red Bull Racing Renault RB10 | 1:10.920 | + 1.378 | 36 |
9. | Kevin Magnussen | ![]() |
McLaren Mercedes MP4-29 | 1:10.936 | + 1.394 | 45 |
10. | Jean-Éric Vergne | ![]() |
Scuderia Toro Rosso Renault STR9 | 1:10.972 | + 1.430 | 39 |
11. | Kimi Räikkönen | ![]() |
Scuderia Ferrari F14T | 1:10.974 | + 1.432 | 45 |
12. | Daniil Kvyat | ![]() |
Scuderia Toro Rosso Renault STR9 | 1:11.261 | + 1.719 | 45 |
13. | Sergio Pérez | ![]() |
Force India Mercedes Mercedes VJM07 | 1:11.296 | + 1.754 | 36 |
14. | Esteban Gutiérrez | ![]() |
Sauber F1 Team Ferrari C33 | 1:11.491 | + 1.949 | 42 |
15. | Pastor Maldonado | ![]() |
Lotus F1 Team Renault E22 | 1:11.765 | + 2.223 | 30 |
16. | Adrian Sutil | ![]() |
Sauber F1 Team Ferrari C33 | 1:11.806 | + 2.264 | 42 |
17. | Nico Hülkenberg | ![]() |
Force India Mercedes Mercedes VJM07 | 1:11.935 | + 2.393 | 39 |
18. | Max Chilton | ![]() |
Marussia F1 Team Ferrari MR03 | 1:12.229 | + 2.687 | 43 |
19. | Romain Grosjean | ![]() |
Lotus F1 Team Renault E22 | 1:12.262 | + 2.720 | 46 |
20. | Jules Bianchi | ![]() |
Marussia F1 Team Ferrari MR03 | 1:12.279 | + 2.737 | 36 |
21. | Kamui Kobayashi | ![]() |
Caterham F1 Team Renault CT05 | 1:12.937 | + 3.395 | 24 |
22. | Marcus Ericsson | ![]() |
Caterham F1 Team Renault CT05 | 1:13.596 | + 4.054 | 48 |
Images via XPB Images
Josh Kruse
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