Rosberg leads Ricciardo and Hamilton in FP2

40

Nico Rosberg set the pace in second practice for the United States Grand Prix as he led Daniel Ricciardo and Lewis Hamilton in Austin.

The championship leader responded to Hamilton setting the fastest time in the opening practice session by posting a 1:37.358 in FP2 as all of the front runners used the supersoft tyre. With Red Bull having only used the medium compound on Friday morning, Ricciardo was much more competitive on low fuel as he set a time just 0.194s slower than Rosberg, edging out Hamilton by 0.097s.

AS IT HAPPENED: United States Grand Prix - FP2

Sebastian Vettel was some 0.8s adrift in fourth place, with team-mate Kimi Raikkonen limited to tenth - 1.5s off the pace - having gone off at Turn 19 on his best supersoft tyre lap. Raikkonen was forced wide as the rear stepped out on him under braking, using up the best of the supersoft's performance.

Max Verstappen was fifth, less than 0.1s slower than Vettel and a quarter of a second clear of the Force India pair of Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez. Both McLarens were also in the top ten with Jenson Button just ahead of Fernando Alonso.

It was a disjointed session which saw a number of errors, with a red flag required after 50 minutes due to debris on the track. While the Virtual Safety Car was used to remove debris in FP1, the red flag was brought out after Romain Grosjean lost another piece of bodywork at Turn 6, with the rear wing of his Haas to blame following a similar issue in the opening session.

The stoppage was only a short one, but interrupted long runs at Circuit of the Americas which could cloud the true picture when it comes to tyre behaviour.

Esteban Ocon and Carlos Sainz both spun off at Turn 18 - the latter right at the end of the session - while Jolyon Palmer was again struggling as he spun at Turn 8. Palmer's spin was less orthodox, as he overcorrected some oversteer exiting the corner and swapped ends on the outside of the track, running across some gravel and onto grass. Fortunately the Renault wasn't damaged and Palmer was able to continue, but ended the session in 17th, five places behind team-mate Kevin Magnussen.

As is often the case, the two Williams cars were off the pace in FP2, with Valtteri Bottas 14th and Felipe Massa 16th, roughly half a second adrift of the Force Indias in the battle for fourth place in the constructors' championship.

Silbermann says ... Taylor should take over F1

Romain Grosjean column: 100 races, now for the wins

PREVIEW: 2016 United States Grand Prix

TECHNICAL - Turbulent Jet Ignition: In the antechamber of F1 power

FEATURE: Where and why has Williams been caught out

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
01	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:37.358	33
02	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:37.552	33
03	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:37.649	32
04	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:38.178	35
05	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1:38.258	27
06	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1:38.508	32
07	Sergio Perez	Force India	1:38.568	31
08	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:38.713	29
09	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:38.801	30
10	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:38.865	31
11	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso	1:38.971	31
12	Kevin Magnussen	Renault	1:39.159	23
13	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	1:39.189	28
14	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	1:39.197	34
15	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	1:39.202	36
16	Felipe Massa	Williams	1:39.281	30
17	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	1:39.455	34
18	Romain Grosjean	Haas	1:39.554	24
19	Esteban Ocon	Manor	1:40.086	27
20	Esteban Gutierrez	Haas	1:40.114	26
21	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:40.219	28
22	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor	1:41.131	31

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.