Hamilton quickest in FP2 at Austin

Yesterday afternoon we saw Lewis Hamilton setting the pace in FP1 in Austin ahead of his team mate and championship rival Nico Rosberg and Fernando who was third fastest.

During FP1, we saw a few drivers spinning off during the session. With drivers such as Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa locking up their tyres into Turn 1 and the Lotus drivers of Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado spinning during the session.

Towards the end of the session, Lewis Hamilton was asked to come back to the pits with a 'leak' in his car. This 'leak' turned out to be a hydraulic issue that is being investigated and Hamilton being called back into the pits during the end of the session was a precautionary measure.

Once again, it was also announced by the FIA that they will testing out their virtual Safety Car procedure at the end of the session just like they did in FP1. In order to test out this procedure, the FIA has all the cars on the grid to test this out for the FIA.

But it was Hamilton who was fastest in FP2 ahead of Rosberg with a lap time of 1.39.085. Rosberg finished the session in second place ahead of Alonso who was 1.104 seconds behind the two Mercedes drivers.

Daniel Ricciardo finished the session in fourth place ahead of Felipe Massa in fifth place who improved from FP1, Kimi Raikkonen in sixth place and Daniil Kvyat in seventh place who is having a strong weekend so far. Kevin Magnussen ended the session in eighth place ahead of his team mate Jenson Button in ninth place and Nico Hulkenberg rounded off the top ten finishers of the session.

Valtteri Bottas ended the session in eleventh place ahead of Romain Grosjean in twelfth place, Jean-Eric Vergne in thirteenth place and Sergio Perez in fourteenth place who appears to be struggling for pace so far this weekend.

As we head into the latter stages of the grid, Pastor Maldonado finished the session in fifteenth place ahead of the Sauber drivers of Adrian Sutil and Esteban Guiterrez who finished in sixteenth and seventeenth places ahead of Sebastian Vettel who finished the session in eighteenth place.

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

Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1.39.085
Nico Rosberg Mercedes 0.003s
Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1.104s
Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 1.305s
Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1.372s
Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1.458s
Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1.546s
Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes 1.556s
Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1.613s
Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1.715s
Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 1.743s
Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1.969s
Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1.969s
Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 2.038s
Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault 2.073s
Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari 2.247s
Esteban Guiterrez Sauber-Ferrari 2.335s
Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 4.895s

Sarah Jones