Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg made it two from two after setting the quickest time in Free Practice 2 for the Australian Grand Prix.
Rosberg’s time of 1:27.697 was 0.100s quicker than his team mate Lewis Hamilton who did a time of 1:27.797 to go second fastest. Rosberg’s time on Pirelli’s soft compound tyre was 0.715s quicker than Vettel’s fastest time on the same tyre.
Sebastian Vettel finished the session in P3 with Kimi Raikkonen ended in session in P4 for Ferrari. Both Ferrari drivers are looking comfortable in the car and the improvement from the team over the winter is starting to become more apparent.
Finishing P5 in the session was Valtteri Bottas for Williams who was about 1.5s off the pace. Felipe Massa had to sit out of the session due to a water leak before the session had started. The team worked to repair the leak but they could not repair it in time for him to run before FP2 ended.
Daniil Kvyat finished P6 for Red Bull with a time of 1:30.016. Kvyat did not look very comfortable in the car and was struggling with the power delivery of the car. On the other side of the Red Bull garage, Daniel Ricciardo’s RB11 had to undergo an engine change.
Toro Rosso are showing very strong early form with Carlos Sainz Jr finishing in P7 this session. He was not far off the Kvyat’s time, he was just 0.055s slower.
The Lotus pair of Pastor Maldonado and Romain Grosjean finished in P8 and P9 respectively. Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg rounded out the top 10.
After sitting out the first session due to the court action against the team, Sauber sent both their drivers out for the session. Felipe Nasr finished in P11 with Marcus Ericsson finishing P15.
McLaren’s Jenson Button ended his session in P13 after suffering a loss of engine power close to the end of the session. Kevin Magnussen in the other McLaren brought out the red flags earlier in the session after loosing the rear of the car and crashing into the T6 barriers.
The Manor Racing pair again, sat out the session as they continue to work on re-installing the software needed to run the car.
Photo by courtesy Pirelli
