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Rosberg keeps Mercedes on top in Austria test

Nico Rosberg went quickest during the second day of Formula 1 testing at the Red Bull Ring, keeping Mercedes on top of the timesheets for a second day in succession.

Nico Rosberg, Mercedes AMG F1 W06

Nico Rosberg, Mercedes AMG F1 W06

XPB Images

Nico Rosberg, Mercedes AMG F1 W06
Pascal Wehrlein, Sahara Force India F1 VJM08 Test Driver
Nico Rosberg, Mercedes AMG F1 W06 running sensor equipment
Nico Rosberg, Mercedes AMG F1 W06 running sensor equipment
Felipe Nasr, Sauber C34
Esteban Gutierrez, Ferrari SF15-T Test and Reserve Driver runs off the circuit and into a gravel trap
Esteban Gutierrez, Ferrari SF15-T Test and Reserve Driver runs off the circuit and into a gravel trap
Jolyon Palmer, Lotus F1 E23 Test and Reserve Driver
Felipe Nasr, Sauber C34

After rain had curtailed a large of portion of Tuesday's running, dry conditions prevailed on Wednesday, allowing the teams plenty of time to work through their programmes.

It was Valtteri Bottas who was in control of much of the morning, setting a best time of 1:11.965 on soft tyres before working his way down to a 1:10.495 on supersofts.

That benchmark stood until a rapid run early in the afternoon by Rosberg, whose best time of 1:09.113 was enough to top the session by over eight tenths of a second.

Esteban Gutierrez moved Ferrari up to second relatively late on, less than a tenth ahead of Bottas, whose Williams team once again completed the least amount of laps on 79.

At the opposite end of the spectrum was DTM champion Marco Wittmann, who set the fourth best time of the day for Toro Rosso in his first day behind the wheel of an F1 car while recording the most laps of anyone with 158.

Pascal Wehrlein, yesterday's pacesetter for Mercedes, was fifth for Force India, putting some more mileage on the team's revised B-spec car, ahead of Lotus driver Jolyon Palmer, who came to a stop on track with just a couple of minutes of the session remaining.

Fernando Alonso managed 104 laps for McLaren-Honda, having swapped days with the team's tester Stoffel Vandoorne following his Austrian GP crash in order to be able to trial more upgrades, and was seventh quickest, 1.6 seconds off the pace.

Propping up the timesheets were Daniel Ricciardo, who caused a red flag late on when his Red Bull ground to a halt at the pitlane entry because of a brake problem, and Felipe Nasr, who was the second most productive driver of the session for Sauber on 138 laps.

Session results:

Pos Driver Team Time Gap Laps
1. Nico Rosberg Mercedes  1:09.113   117
2. Esteban Gutierrez Ferrari 1:09.931 +0.818 110
3. Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 1:10.029 +0.916 79
4. Marco Wittmann Toro Rosso-Renault 1:10.103 +0.990 158
5. Pascal Wehrlein Force India-Mercedes 1:10.253 +1.140 132
6. Jolyon Palmer Lotus-Mercedes 1:10.373 +1.260 110
7. Fernando Alonso McLaren-Honda 1:10.718 +1.605 104
8. Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 1:10.757 +1.644 116
9. Felipe Nasr Sauber-Ferrari 1:10.922 +1.809 138

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