F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Rosberg heads Raikkonen, reliability woes for Hamilton

Nico Rosberg was fastest in the second practice session for the Singapore Grand Prix, but team-mate Lewis Hamilton's running was cut short by a reliability concern.

After Red Bull topped the opening session it was Rosberg who was fastest on the ultrasoft tyre in FP2, leading Raikkonen by 0.275s. Three teams were covered by less than 0.4s, with Max Verstappen third and team-mate Daniel Ricciardo just 0.405s adrift in fourth. Unlike the opening session, the times were comparable as all set their fastest laps on the ultrasoft tyre.

AS IT HAPPENED: Singapore Grand Prix - FP2

It was far from a smooth session for the Red Bulls, with Verstappen - who has an upgraded Renault power unit this weekend - complaining he wasn't getting a worthwhile long run due to traffic, while Ricciardo was lucky to escape a spin early in the session. The Australian clipped the wall at Turn 11 with his left rear tyre and spun but stopped short of the barrier on the inside of the track.

Championship leader Hamilton was not so lucky as he completed just ten laps and was seventh quickest when he returned to the pits to have an hydraulic alert investigated by Mercedes. The team discovered the problem could not be resolved in time to get the car back on track during the remainder of the session.

Sebastian Vettel and Nico Hulkenberg separated Hamilton from the top four, with Vettel a second off the pace as he was unable to match Raikkonen's time on the ultrasoft tyres. It was not a representative lap from the four-time world champion, as he ended the session just 0.021s clear of the Force India.

The two Toro Rossos remained in the top ten, with Carlos Sainz eighth ahead of Fernando Alonso and Daniil Kvyat. In a role reversal of the opening session it was Sainz of the two Toro Rossos who made an error, following Alonso in running wide at Turn 10 and hitting the Tecpro barrier with his right rear wheel. Fortunately, both drivers escaped damage.

Alonso's session ended with a walk back to the pits, however, as his McLaren came to a halt at Turn 16 with a gearbox problem on his final lap.

In a session which featured a number of mistakes, Romain Grosjean suffered the most damage as he spun at the final corner. Grosjean had already complained of problems with his brakes when he lost the rear of his Haas as he came through to complete a lap, spinning backwards into the wall and damaging his rear wing. The Frenchman needed a new rear wing and floor after the incident, which Haas could not fit in time for him to return to the track after 12 laps.

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Chris Medland's 2016 Singapore Grand Prix preview

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Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
01	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:44.152	34
02	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:44.427	34
03	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1:44.532	29
04	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:44.557	26
05	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:45.161	33
06	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1:45.182	35
07	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:45.275	10
08	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso	1:45.507	33
09	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:45.779	30
10	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	1:46.029	35
11	Sergio Perez	Force India	1:46.063	26
12	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:46.574	30
13	Esteban Gutierrez	Haas	1:46.727	36
14	Felipe Massa	Williams	1:46.856	30
15	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	1:46.960	30
16	Kevin Magnussen	Renault	1:47.161	30
17	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	1:47.166	34
18	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	1:47.531	29
19	Romain Grosjean	Haas	1:48.391	12
20	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:48.487	32
21	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor	1:48.505	33
22	Esteban Ocon	Manor	1:48.823	29

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.