Hamilton sweeps Friday practice as Rosberg hits trouble in FP2

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Lewis Hamilton completes a clean sweep of Friday practice sessions for the British Grand Prix by topping FP2, as Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg sees his afternoon efforts cut short by a water leak.

The triple world champion’s 1:31.660 flyer set on the soft tyre was slower than his FP1 benchmark (1:31.654) clocked on the medium compound. It was still nearly six tenths quicker than his pole position time from last year (1:32.248) at Silverstone.

Rosberg reported some issues with his W07 right from the start of FP2, with Mercedes finding a small water leak following a round of extra checks. While the reigning Constructors’ champions initially thought they had the problem under control, it quickly appeared that the current championship leader would not be able to take part in the session anymore.

Second-placed Daniel Ricciardo was almost 0.4s adrift of Hamilton, with the Australian heading Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen. After sampling the updated version of the Halo cockpit protection system in FP1, Sebastian Vettel placed fourth again, nine tenths off the table-topping pace.

Team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, who has been re-signed by Ferrari for 2017, slotted into fifth ahead of the lead McLaren-Honda of Fernando Alonso in sixth.

Williams improved from his low-key FP1 performance: Valtteri Bottas finished seventh, three spots ahead of Felipe Massa. Sandwiched in between the two FW38s were Romain Grosjean’s Haas in eighth and Jenson Button, who recovered from a disjointed start of his session to make it two Honda-powered MP4-31s in the upper half of the field.

After placing its two drivers near the front in FP1, Force India had a quieter session in the afternoon, as Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez logged the 15th and 16th fastest times respectively.

It was a stronger session for Manor, with Pascal Wehrlein posting the 17th quickest mark to outpace both Renaults, Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson, and team-mate Rio Haryanto, who was 21st and last of the drivers having set a time.

AS IT HAPPENED: FP2 for the British Grand Prix

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Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
01	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:31.660	36
02	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:32.051	30
03	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1:32.286	36
04	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:32.570	40
05	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:32.736	38
06	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:33.040	31
07	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	1:33.493	38
08	Romain Grosjean	Haas	1:33.614	32
09	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:33.763	20
10	Felipe Massa	Williams	1:33.801	29
11	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso	1:33.840	27
12	Esteban Gutierrez	Haas	1:34.000	32
13	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	1:34.139	35
14	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	1:34.154	25
15	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1:34.321	35
16	Sergio Perez	Force India	1:34.356	37
17	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor	1:34.549	40
18	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	1:34.610	41
19	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:34.722	36
20	Kevin Magnussen	Renault	1:34.959	41
21	Rio Haryanto	Manor	1:35.841	36
22	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes		0