Hamilton fights back and leads Rosberg in FP2

Hamilton fights back and leads Rosberg in FP2

This afternoon we saw Mercedes picking up where they left off in opening practice at the Belgian Grand Prix, with Lewis Hamilton fighting back and leading his team mate Nico Rosberg in FP2 at Spa.

For the sixth P2 session in succession, it was Hamilton in the all-Mercedes title duel who ended the opening day of a race weekend with the fastest time of the session. Hamilton (fresh from a post-P1 pit lane soaking after taking on the ice-bucket challenge), was on red-hot form during the afternoon session's qualifying simulations and his lap of 1:49.189 was 0.6 seconds quicker than his team mate Rosberg's.

Although Rosberg is the championship leader, he did lose some time by running slightly wide at the top of the hill on his best lap. But Hamilton's overall lap and general pace through the session was clearly superior to the point where only one Mercedes runner was able to get within one second of him.

Yet again it was Fernando Alonso who finished the session in third place who was 0.7 seconds behind Hamilton and has impressed everyone today with his performance in both of the practice sessions. After a quiet morning, the Williams team who are tipped by many to be challenging Mercedes on race day on Sunday, began to show their hand with their drivers Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas in fourth and sixth places respectively ahead of Jenson Button who finished in fifth place.

Behind Button, Daniil Kvyat finished in seventh place ahead of Daniel Ricciardo in eighth place, Kevin Magnussen in ninth place and Nico Hulkenberg in tenth place. Jean-Eric Vergne in his Toro Rosso finished the session in eleventh place ahead of Adrian Sutil who finished in twelfth place, Sergio Perez who finished in thirteenth place and Romain Grosjean in fourteenth place.

As we move further down the grid, Kimi Raikkonen appeared to be struggling in his Ferrari with issues surrounding overheating on the ERS on his car which left him only finishing in fifteenth place. Behind Raikkonen, Jules Bianchi finished the session in sixteenth place ahead of Esteban Guiterrez in seventeenth place who stopped on track after spinning through Blanchimont corner, with what appears to be gearbox problems on the C33.

Max Chilton after being allowed to take his place back this weekend finished in the session in eighteenth place ahead of Marcus Ericsson in nineteenth place and also ahead of his new team mate Andre Lotterer who finished in the session in twentieth place.

This afternoon did not go to plan for the Red Bull team as Sebastian Vettel missed the entire session. Vettel’s latest bout of bad luck this season was triggered by an electrical issue in P1 which caused wider damage to his RB10’s Renault engine. With a change of unit required, the Red Bull mechanics were never going to complete the work in time to get Vettel out for this afternoon's session. Furthermore, the change of unit is set to push Vettel precariously close to his penalty-free engine limit for the season.
Also, Pastor Maldonado's troubles at Lotus are continuing. After being involved in numerous incidents up to the summer break, he still hasn't scored any points for Lotus this season. During the session, Maldonado crashed out on his first time lap in P2 after running wide on the entry to Pouhon.

The force of the impact into the barriers which forced the E22’s front suspension to be ripped off meant Maldonado was taken to the circuit’s medical centre for precautionary checks but the driver was given the all-clear and leaves his team with a lot of work to do overnight to be ready for FP3 tomorrow morning.

The classification of FP2 at the Belgian Grand Prix is as follows below:-

Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1.49.789s
Nico Rosberg Mercedes 0.684s
Fernando Alonso Ferrari 0.741s
Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1.138s
Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1.470s
Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 1.488s
Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1.536s
Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 1.788s
Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes 1.885s
Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1.886s
Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 2.194s
Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari 2.261s
Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 2.384s
Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 3.009s
Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 3.045s
Jules Bianchi Marussia-Ferrari 3.587s
Esteban Guiterrez Sauber-Ferrari 4.766s
Max Chilton Sauber-Ferrari 4.857s
Marcus Ericsson Caterham-Renault 4.861s
Andre Lotterer Caterham-Renault 4.904s
Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault No Time
Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault No Time

Laser cut “Spa” by GrahamandLeigh.co.uk