Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsFormula 1

Rosberg leads Ferrari in FP2 hit by red flags

Nico Rosberg was again fastest for Mercedes in a second practice session which saw two red flags at Silverstone.

Having been quickest by just 0.07s in FP1 - when he stopped on track - Rosberg was 0.347s clear of Kimi Raikkonen as Ferrari improved in the afternoon session. Raikkonen's best time came on his second flying lap on the medium tyre, with the Finn edging out team-mate Sebastian Vettel by just 0.02s.

Lewis Hamilton was fourth quickest but nearly half a second adrift of Rosberg and complained his car was "all over the place" late in the session. The championship leader finished the session carrying out practice starts away from his pit box as he looks to avoid a repeat of his poor start in Austria.

Red Bull showed signs of improvement with Daniil Kvyat fifth ahead of Daniel Ricciardo in sixth, the final two cars within a second of Rosberg's best time. The two Toro Rossos were also inside the top ten, with Max Verstappen seventh and Carlos Sainz ninth respectively.

Luffield proved a tricky corner throughout the session as first Romain Grosjean ran off in to the gravel at the long right-hander and was unable to carry enough momentum to rejoin the track as his Lotus bogged down in the deep part of the trap. Grosjean's stoppage caused the first red flag, although he did manage to run again later in the session having had the car returned, helping clean the dust off it himself in the garage.

Fernando Alonso then followed suit with a carbon copy of Grosjean's error. Unlike the Frenchman, Alonso was able to keep the car moving and crept back out of the gravel to continue.

Roberto Merhi was the final driver to go off at Luffield, spinning and ending up with two wheels off the circuit. Just as Merhi got the Manor moving again, the session was red flagged and all the cars had to return to the pits despite the session being restarted as soon as they were all back in their respective garages.

McLaren continued to struggle, with Fernando Alonso 2.5s off the pace in 15th place and Jenson Button another half a second adrift in 17th.

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Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
01	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:34.155	34
02	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:34.502	29
03	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:34.522	27
04	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:34.621	23
05	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull	1:35.009	25
06	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:35.153	22
07	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso	1:35.300	36
08	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1:35.387	34
09	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso	1:35.866	37
10	Felipe Massa	Williams	1:36.147	33
11	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus	1:36.164	32
12	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	1:36.183	33
13	Sergio Perez	Force India	1:36.351	29
14	Romain Grosjean	Lotus	1:36.728	21
15	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:36.731	19
16	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	1:36.822	23
17	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:37.196	16
18	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:37.327	37
19	Will Stevens	Manor	1:38.279	21
20	Roberto Merhi	Manor	1:39.878	21

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.