Sebastian Vettel set the fastest time of FP2 for the Austrian Grand Prix, heading Nico Rosberg by just 0.011s.
Ferrari set the pace on a Friday afternoon for the first time this season courtesy of Vettel's time of 1:09.600, edging out Rosberg during a highly competitive session. It was a good recovery from Vettel who only completed four laps in FP1 before stopping on track, with the quadruple world champion quickly up to speed in second practice. However, Vettel's long run was curtailed by a gearbox problem which kept him in the pits for the final 25 minutes.
Kimi Raikkonen was third as Ferrari looked strong around the Red Bull Ring, ending up a quarter of a second slower than his team-mate. There was also an encouraging lap from Pastor Maldonado to finish fourth fastest, 0.314s adrift of Vettel's time.
Lewis Hamilton struggled throughout Friday relative to his team-mate, and failed to put together a clean lap on the supersoft tyre, setting his best time on the softs after twice running off track. Those mistakes left Hamilton fifth, half a second off the pace.
The leading cars were also closely matched on the soft tyre, with just 0.2s separating the two Mercedes and Ferrari drivers. Vettel's gearbox issue saw him miss out on his long run, but Raikkonen's soft tyre pace was similar to Rosberg's on the same tyre and quicker than Hamilton on the supersofts, hinting at the potential for a close race on Sunday.
Le Mans winner Nico Hulkenberg finished FP2 sixth fastest as Force India showed encouraging pace throughout Friday having taken the updated Mercedes power unit this weekend. With Maldonado fourth, Romain Grosjean was second in the other Lotus ahead of Max Verstappen, Felipe Nasr and Sergio Perez.
There were more problems for McLaren as both drivers completed just 17 laps each throughout the 90 minutes, with Jenson Button complaining of a lack of power. Fernando Alonso was running the updated nose on the MP4-30 but similarly ended his session early, with neither driver running the supersoft tyre. However, there were signs the upgrade is an improvement as Alonso outpaced Button by 0.4s despite being hampered by reliability issues in FP1.
Williams looked strong in the morning but spent the afternoon session focusing on race pace, with Valtteri Bottas 14th and Felipe Massa 15th at a track where the two locked out the front row last season.
A threat of rain never develop in to any actual showers throughout the session, but conditions were still difficult for drivers as they dealt with low grip levels early in the weekend. Carlos Sainz took to the gravel at Turn 5 having lost the rear end of his Toro Rosso on entry, while Pastor Maldonado and Roberto Merhi had similar excursions at Turn 3.
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| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1:09.600 | 28 |
| 02 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:09.611 | 50 |
| 03 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1:09.860 | 41 |
| 04 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus | 1:09.914 | 44 |
| 05 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:10.137 | 49 |
| 06 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | 1:10.160 | 49 |
| 07 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | 1:10.267 | 38 |
| 08 | Max Verstappen | Toro Rosso | 1:10.356 | 48 |
| 09 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber | 1:10.495 | 39 |
| 10 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 1:10.585 | 46 |
| 11 | Carlos Sainz | Toro Rosso | 1:10.631 | 50 |
| 12 | Daniil Kvyat | Red Bull | 1:10.686 | 48 |
| 13 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 1:10.744 | 40 |
| 14 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 1:10.746 | 34 |
| 15 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 1:11.011 | 42 |
| 16 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 1:11.517 | 17 |
| 17 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 1:11.676 | 38 |
| 18 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 1:11.919 | 17 |
| 19 | Will Stevens | Manor | 1:12.522 | 34 |
| 20 | Roberto Merhi | Manor | 1:13.094 | 34 |
