Lewis Hamilton has finished the second practice session of the first European Grand Prix in Azerbaijan quickest ahead of Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg, who experienced a power unit issue towards the end of the session.
Hamilton’s impressive time of 1:44.223 was over half a second quicker than Rosberg’s best effort on the super soft tyre and a further 1.113 seconds to third place finisher Sergio Pérez in the Force India.
Rosberg was forced to stop out on track with 20 minutes remaining when he reported a drive problem in his Mercedes, this led to the deployment of the Virtual Safety Car for a brief intermission while the marshals removed his car off the track.
Ferrari was also in the wars when it came to technical issues, as Kimi Räikkönen locked up into the Turn 4 escape road when he experienced an MGU-K problem that effected the brake-by-wire system in his Ferrari.
The Finn was running twelfth-fastest at the time and eventually was bumped down to thirteenth, while his teammate Sebastian Vettel didn’t fare much better, finishing in eighth position and almost two seconds off Hamilton’s benchmark. Vettel was ordered by his team at the end of the session to nurse his car back to the pits as Ferrari believed he had the same problem as Räikkönen.
Valtteri Bottas finished higher than usual for an FP2 session – in fourth position – as Williams generally show off their pace on the Saturday; he was one-tenth of a second clear of Nico Hülkenberg who made it two Force Indias in the top five.
Carlos Sainz was the first of the non-Mercedes powered entries in sixth position and finished four-one hundredths of a second ahead of Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen.
McLaren’s Jenson Button sneaked into the top ten in ninth, just ahead of the second Red Bull Racing Daniel Ricciardo.
Button’s teammate Fernando Alonso was eleventh-fastest, but the Spaniard’s session was heavily disrupted as a fuel issue saw him stuck in the garage while the team worked on his car.
Marcus Ericsson was another driver to run into mechanical trouble. He missed the first 35 minutes of FP2 as the Sauber team changed his engine following an exhaust problem during FP1. He managed to register 22 laps with a best time good enough for nineteenth place ahead of Renault’s Jolyon Palmer.
2016 FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX OF EUROPE – FREE PRACTICE 2 SESSION RESULTS | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Driver | Team / Entry | Result | Laps | |||
1. | Lewis Hamilton | ![]() |
Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 W07 Hybrid | 1:44.223 | 33 | |
2. | Nico Rosberg | ![]() |
Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 W07 Hybrid | + 0.690 | 26 | |
3. | Sergio Pérez | ![]() |
Sahara Force India Mercedes VJM09 | + 1.113 | 37 | |
4. | Valtteri Bottas | ![]() |
Williams Martini Racing Mercedes FW38 | + 1.541 | 35 | |
5. | Nico Hülkenberg | ![]() |
Sahara Force India Mercedes VJM09 | + 1.697 | 37 | |
6. | Carlos Sainz Jr | ![]() |
Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari STR11 | + 1.804 | 35 | |
7. | Max Verstappen | ![]() |
Red Bull Racing Tag Heuer RB12 | + 1.845 | 35 | |
8. | Sebastian Vettel | ![]() |
Scuderia Ferrari SF16-H | + 1.996 | 36 | |
9. | Jenson Button | ![]() |
McLaren-Honda MP4-31 | + 2.011 | 32 | |
10. | Daniel Ricciardo | ![]() |
Red Bull Racing Tag Heuer RB12 | + 2.070 | 32 | |
11. | Fernando Alonso | ![]() |
McLaren-Honda MP4-31 | + 2.275 | 27 | |
12. | Romain Grosjean | ![]() |
Haas F1 Ferrari VF-16 | + 2.458 | 29 | |
13. | Kimi Räikkönen | ![]() |
Scuderia Ferrari SF16-H | + 2.471 | 32 | |
14. | Daniil Kvyat | ![]() |
Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari STR11 | + 2.521 | 35 | |
15. | Esteban Gutiérrez | ![]() |
Haas F1 Ferrari VF-16 | + 2.607 | 26 | |
16. | Felipe Massa | ![]() |
Williams Martini Racing Mercedes FW38 | + 2.837 | 28 | |
17. | Kevin Magnussen | ![]() |
Renault Sport F1 Team RS16 | + 3.106 | 38 | |
18. | Rio Haryanto | ![]() |
Manor Racing Mercedes MRT5 | + 3.264 | 33 | |
19. | Marcus Ericsson | ![]() |
Sauber F1 Team Ferrari C35 | + 3.549 | 22 | |
20. | Jolyon Palmer | ![]() |
Renault Sport F1 Team RS16 | + 3.571 | 35 | |
21. | Pascal Wehrlein | ![]() |
Manor Racing Mercedes MRT5 | + 3.795 | 36 | |
22. | Felipe Nasr | ![]() |
Sauber F1 Team Ferrari C35 | + 3.858 | 38 |
Image via XPB Images
Josh Kruse
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