Rosberg heads Raikkonen by 0.25s in FP2

Nico Rosberg set the fastest time of FP2 for the Spanish Grand Prix, leading Kimi Raikkonen by a quarter of a second.

With Ferrari having set the pace in the first practice session but been the only team to run the soft compound tyre, a more representative comparison was possible on Friday afternoon as all the teams used the softs in FP2. Rosberg's lap of 1:23.922 was just 0.029s faster than Sebastian Vettel managed in the first session, but on this occasion left him 0.254s clear of Raikkonen.

Ferrari had a somewhat disjointed session, with Raikkonen having his running interrupted by a fuel system issue, while Vettel failed to set a clean lap on the soft tyre and was a second off the pace.

Similar to Vettel, Lewis Hamilton had a scruffy lap on the soft compound tyre - running slightly wide at Turn 7 and losing time - which left him 0.7s slower than his team-mate in third place. Hamilton has an improved turbo and MGU-H design this weekend but was struggling with set-up earlier in the session.

Carlos Sainz ended FP2 fifth quickest and ahead of both Red Bull drivers having been overlooked in the week when Max Verstappen was promoted to replace Daniil Kvyat. Sainz was 1.2s off Rosberg's best time but 0.061s ahead of Daniel Ricciardo, with Fernando Alonso seventh ahead of Verstappen and the two Force Indias.

The session was halted for ten minutes early on after Jolyon Palmer suffered a puncture at high speed. The Renault driver was just reaching the braking zone for Turn 1 when his left rear tyre blew, with the rookie doing well to control the car and stop in the run-off area. The red flag was brought out while the car and debris was cleared, with Palmer able to rejoin later on.

With Alonso in seventh and Jenson Button in 12th, McLaren showed pace which suggests it will be close to a spot in Q3 on Saturday, though the Williams pair of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa - 11th and 16th respectively - still have more to show.

Haas endured another frustrating session, with Romain Grosjean complaining the car was "very, very difficult to drive" while Esteban Gutierrez was 21st and completed only nine laps due to an electronics issue.

AS IT HAPPENED: Spanish Grand Prix - FP2

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Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
01	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:23.922	35
02	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:24.176	31
03	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:24.641	27
04	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:25.017	35
05	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso	1:25.131	39
06	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:25.194	37
07	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:25.342	31
08	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1:25.375	31
09	Sergio Perez	Force India	1:25.437	32
10	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1:25.453	35
11	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	1:25.708	30
12	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:25.893	20
13	Romain Grosjean	Haas	1:25.899	33
14	Kevin Magnussen	Renault	1:26.244	40
15	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	1:26.375	44
16	Felipe Massa	Williams	1:26.491	36
17	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	1:26.770	16
18	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor	1:26.960	40
19	Rio Haryanto	Manor	1:27.252	39
20	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	1:27.812	40
21	Esteban Gutierrez	Haas	1:28.205	9
22	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:28.501	42

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.