Lewis Hamilton has beaten Nico Rosberg to P1 in the second practice session at the Hockenheim circuit by 0.02 seconds.
The second practice session was dominated by scorching track temperatures exceeding 56 degrees Celsius, and playing havoc with teams trying to get a read on tyre behaviours.
Sauber’s Adrian Sutil was told to cool his super soft tyres by a whopping 20 degrees, which shows how much overheating the teams have to deal with.
Although there is rain expected for the race on Sunday, if the track were to reach such temperatures again we could see teams opting for a three stop strategy. The super soft tyre’s wouldn’t cope long in extreme conditions and the short pit lane provides a tempting option for a three stopping race.
On long run pace, Mercedes are still the team to beat as both drivers were consistently putting in times of low 1.22’s, however seemed to slow a bit the longer they stayed out. It’s easy to say that Mercedes are missing their FRIC suspension, but the simple reason could be that they’re sandbagging.
Red Bull currently look best of the rest for the third spot on the podium come Sunday, providing that both drivers qualify well. They were also quite consistent with their long run times and just a couple of tenths of a second behind the Mercedes drivers.
It’s hard to get a read on Ferrari’s session, as Fernando Alonso only completed a handful of complete laps before running single laps then returning to the garage. Kimi Raikkonen had a more promising session as his lap times look quite competitive for Sunday.
The Williams pair also had an interrupted session when Valtteri Bottas spent a bit of the last half stuck in the garage. Felipe Massa struggled to post competitive times early on, however once the track wore in a bit more he showed that the Williams have the pace to fight with Red Bull and Ferrari.
Kamui Kobayashi’s session ended early as a suspected exhausted problem saw his Caterham catch fire at Turn 16. He also reported over team radio that his brakes had failed which resulted in his session only lasting only 30 minutes.
2014 German Formula 1 Grand Prix – Free Practice 2 Results:
Driver | Team / Entry | Time | Gap | Laps | ||
1. | Lewis Hamilton | ![]() |
Mercedes AMG Petronas F1W05 | 1:18.341 | 38 | |
2. | Nico Rosberg | ![]() |
Mercedes AMG Petronas F1W05 | 1:18.365 | + 0.024 | 39 |
3. | Daniel Ricciardo | ![]() |
Infiniti Red Bull Racing Renault RB10 | 1:18.443 | + 0.102 | 35 |
4. | Kimi Räikkönen | ![]() |
Scuderia Ferrari F14T | 1:18.887 | + 0.546 | 38 |
5. | Kevin Magnussen | ![]() |
McLaren Mercedes MP4-29 | 1:18.960 | + 0.619 | 40 |
6. | Felipe Massa | ![]() |
Williams Martini Racing Mercedes FW36 | 1:19.024 | + 0.683 | 36 |
7. | Jenson Button | ![]() |
McLaren Mercedes MP4-29 | 1:19.221 | + 0.880 | 40 |
8. | Sebastian Vettel | ![]() |
Infiniti Red Bull Racing Renault RB10 | 1:19.248 | + 0.907 | 35 |
9. | Fernando Alonso | ![]() |
Scuderia Ferrari F14T | 1:19.329 | + 0.988 | 32 |
10. | Valtteri Bottas | ![]() |
Williams Martini Racing Mercedes FW36 | 1:19.385 | + 1.044 | 34 |
11. | Adrian Sutil | ![]() |
Sauber F1 Team Ferrari C33 | 1:19.417 | + 1.076 | 41 |
12. | Daniil Kvyat | ![]() |
Scuderia Toro Rosso Renault STR9 | 1:19.452 | + 1.111 | 27 |
13. | Sergio Pérez | ![]() |
Force India Mercedes Mercedes VJM07 | 1:19.581 | + 1.240 | 28 |
14. | Nico Hülkenberg | ![]() |
Force India Mercedes Mercedes VJM07 | 1:19.593 | + 1.252 | 32 |
15. | Jean-Éric Vergne | ![]() |
Scuderia Toro Rosso Renault STR9 | 1:19.760 | + 1.419 | 32 |
16. | Pastor Maldonado | ![]() |
Lotus F1 Team Renault E22 | 1:20.158 | + 1.817 | 35 |
17. | Romain Grosjean | ![]() |
Lotus F1 Team Renault E22 | 1:20.358 | + 2.017 | 35 |
18. | Esteban Gutiérrez | ![]() |
Sauber F1 Team Ferrari C33 | 1:20.504 | + 2.163 | 40 |
19. | Jules Bianchi | ![]() |
Marussia F1 Team Ferrari MR03 | 1:21.328 | + 2.987 | 31 |
20. | Marcus Ericsson | ![]() |
Caterham F1 Team Renault CT05 | 1:21.870 | + 3.529 | 21 |
21. | Max Chilton | ![]() |
Marussia F1 Team Ferrari MR03 | 1:21.898 | + 3.557 | 28 |
22. | Kamui Kobayashi | ![]() |
Caterham F1 Team Renault CT05 | 1:23.728 | + 5.387 | 12 |
Images via XPB Images
Josh Kruse
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