Rosberg edges out Hamilton as Ferrari shows pace in FP2

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Nico Rosberg was again quickest in FP2 for the Japanese Grand Prix, edging out team-mate Lewis Hamilton as Kimi Raikkonen showed encouraging pace for Ferrari.

Championship leader Rosberg was quickest in the opening session by nearly a quarter of a second but saw Hamilton cut that gap to just 0.072s on Friday afternoon as teams carried out qualifying simulations. While Red Bull has taken the fight to Mercedes in the last two races, it was Raikkonen who got close to the top two.

AS IT HAPPENED: Japanese Grand Prix - FP2

Raikkonen's lap of 1:32.573 left him 0.3s adrift of Rosberg and a quarter of a second off Hamilton, with the Finn then enjoying an advantage of half a second over Max Verstappen in fourth place. Sebastian Vettel was only 0.042s slower than Verstappen in fifth having completed his soft tyre run early, while the Red Bull low fuel laps were hampered by a Virtual Safety Car (VSC) period after Esteban Gutierrez stopped on track.

Gutierrez suffered a turbo problem in the opening sector and had to stop on the exit of the Dunlop corner, causing the VSC to be deployed while his car was cleared. The stoppage came when Daniel Ricciardo was starting his flying lap, leaving the Malaysian Grand Prix winner to abort his run and end the session nearly two seconds off the pace in 12th.

Ricciardo later asked for long run pace comparison, being told team-mate Verstappen and Hamilton were closely matched on the hard compound tyre towards the end of the session.

While Gutierrez's running came to an end after 11 laps, Daniil Kvyat was lucky to also not have an early finish to his session as he spun exiting the final corner. The Toro Rosso demolished the DRS board on the outside of the track but the Russian managed to skilfully catch the car and continue without suffering any damage.

Kevin Magnussen also came close to damaging his Renault after running wide at the Turn 11 hairpin, locking up heavily and going straight on, just managing to stop before he reached the barrier. As drivers had been able to during the first session, Magnussen managed to rejoin the track through the gravel. Raikkonen followed suit at the same corner later in the session, though did not run as wide.

Felipe Nasr suffered a spin at the end of the session as the Sauber driver lost the rear of his car entering Spoon. Unlike Fernando Alonso - who finished FP2 eight quickest behind the two Force Indias - in the morning, Nasr stopped before reaching the barrier and returned to the pits.

Chris Medland's 2016 Japanese Grand Prix preview

Technical snapshot - Malaysia

Scene at the Malaysian Grand Prix

2016 Malaysian Grand Prix - Quotes of the week

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Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
01	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:32.250	35
02	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:32.322	35
03	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:32.573	26
04	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1:33.061	29
05	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:33.103	34
06	Sergio Perez	Force India	1:33.570	37
07	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1:33.873	35
08	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:33.985	37
09	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	1:34.028	33
10	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso	1:34.086	33
11	Felipe Massa	Williams	1:34.127	33
12	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:34.150	29
13	Romain Grosjean	Haas	1:34.241	33
14	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	1:34.305	27
15	Kevin Magnussen	Renault	1:34.339	36
16	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:34.398	29
17	Esteban Gutierrez	Haas	1:34.643	11
18	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	1:34.760	40
19	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	1:34.824	26
20	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor	1:35.292	30
21	Esteban Ocon	Manor	1:35.400	37
22	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:36.318	26

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.