Rosberg maintains advantage over Hamilton in FP2

Nico Rosberg maintained his clear advantage over team-mate Lewis Hamilton during FP2 for the German Grand Prix as Sebastian Vettel closed the gap.

Having been over 0.3s clear of Hamilton in FP1 at Hockenheim, the supersoft tyre runs saw Rosberg slightly extend that advantage to 0.394s. Perhaps importantly, neither Mercedes driver went quicker than their first practice times, which saw Rosberg post a 1:15.517, compared to his 1:15.614 in the second session.

Sebastian Vettel had been over a second slower than Rosberg in the opening session but closed that gap to just 0.594s in FP2, exactly 0.2s adrift of Hamilton's best time. Vettel completed his flying lap later than all of the other front runners, before being unhappy with the handling of his car over a long run.

Max Verstappen, Daniel Ricciardo and Kimi Raikkonen were fourth, fifth and sixth quickest respectively, with the trio separated by just 0.056s at the end of the session. Raikkonen was later held up by Felipe Massa on his long run and had to force the Williams wide at Turn 8 to get ahead of his former Ferrari team-mate.

Force India had run the medium tyre throughout FP1 but finally showed its true pace with a supersoft lap from Nico Hulkenberg which put the German seventh in the standings ahead of Jenson Button. Button was only able to complete 16 laps, however, as he required a trip to the medical centre as a result of being irritated by something in the cockpit.

Sergio Perez was ninth in the second Force India, ahead of Fernando Alonso in tenth. Alonso also completed limited mileage, with only Button and Romain Grosjean (13) completing fewer laps than the 21 Alonso managed.

Grosjean had a difficult session which started with a spin at the Turn 6 hairpin, and ended prematurely as he took up place on the pit wall for the second half of the session.

Williams again struggled, with Valtteri Bottas 13th and Felipe Massa down in 15th, but there was encouragement for another Mercedes-powered team as Pascal Wehrlein finished the session 19th quickest, ahead of a Renault and Sauber and in touch with Esteban Gutierrez, Kevin Magnussen and Marcus Ericsson ahead of him.

Drivers had to be wary of track limits at Turn 1 throughout the session, with FIA race director Charlie Whiting clamping down on drivers running wide after 93 incidents of a car leaving the circuit in FP1.

AS IT HAPPENED: German Grand Prix - FP2

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