Nico Rosberg remains quickest in FP2 in Belgium despite his tyre blow out

In FP2 in Belgium this afternoon, Nico Rosberg topped the timesheets ahead of his team mate Lewis Hamilton and Daniel Ricciardo even though most people's attentions were on what happened with Rosberg and his tyre blow out during the session that kept both of the Mercedes cars in the garage as a precaution.

Rosberg’s blowout happened on the run down to Pouhon and Rosberg said there were no signs from inside the cockpit that it was about to let go. He was on a long run on the soft compound at the time and when the tyre went he was lucky not to be pitched into a barrier on either side of the straight.

He then ended up with three remaining tyres locked on his car as he skidded down the straight and came to a halt in the run off for Pouhon. The incident will be fully investigated by both Mercedes and Pirelli, but a replay from FOM showed that there was some damage to the tyre earlier in the lap on the Kemmel Straight.

The session was red flagged to recover the debris but was suspended for a second time with 10 minutes remaining when Marcus Ericsson hit the wall at Pouhon. Ericsson ran slightly wide through the sweeping left hand corner and lost the rear of the car on the exit kerb. Within a fraction of a second; the Sauber had swapped ends and slammed into the barriers side on. Ericsson walked away from the accident but only after apologising several times to his team on the pit-to-car radio.

At the end of the session, Romain Grosjean stopped his Louts on the track on Turn 9 with suspected electrical failure with smoke coming out of the back of the car. This then brought out the double yellow flags in order to recover the car from the track.

But it was Nico Rosberg who topped the timesheets with a lap time of 1.49.385 despite his tyre blow out ahead of his team mate Lewis Hamilton in second place who was 0.302 seconds behind him but was ahead of Daniel Ricciardo who finished in third place who was 0.751 seconds behind the Mercedes of Rosberg.

Daniil Kvyat finished the session in fourth place ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in fifth place, Nico Hulkenberg in sixth place and Romain Grosjean in seventh place. Marcus Ericsson ended the session in eighth place ahead of his team mate Felipe Nasr in ninth place and Sebastian Vettel who rounds off the top ten finishers.

Sergio Perez ended the session in eleventh place ahead of Carlos Sainz Jr in twelfth place, Max Verstappen in thirteenth place, Valtteri Bottas in fourteenth place and Pastor Maldonado in fifteenth place.

As we head into the latter stages of the grid, Felipe Massa finished the session in sixteenth place ahead of Jenson Button in seventeenth place, Fernando Alonso in eighteenth place and the two Manor drivers of Will Stevens and Roberto Merhi finishing in nineteenth and twentieth places.

The classification of FP2 for the Belgian GP is as follows:-

1. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1.49.385
2. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 0.302s
3. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull-Renault, 0.751s
4. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull Renault, 1.014s
5. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1.076s
6. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India-Mercedes, 1.076s
7. Romain Grosjean, Lotus-Mercedes, 1.104s
8. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber-Ferrari, 1.314s
9. Felipe Nasr, Sauber-Ferrari, 1.543s
10. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 1.555s
11. Sergio Perez, Force India-Mercedes, 1.586s
12. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 1.652s
13. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, 1.732s
14. Valtteri Bottas, Williams-Mercedes, 1.825s
15. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus-Mercedes, 1.932s
16. Felipe Massa, Williams-Mercedes, 2.203s
17. Jenson Button, McLaren-Honda, 2.469s
18. Fernando Alonso, McLaren-Honda, 2.680s
19. Will Stevens, Manor, 4.680s
20. Roberto Merhi, Manor, 4.868s
Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa