» Hamilton tops FP2 as Rosberg hits trouble

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