Rosberg stays on top in second practice
Nico Rosberg stayed on top of the times in second practice for the Australian Grand Prix as Mercedes began to show its hand.
Photo by: XPB Images
The German driver posted a best time of 1:27.697 to finish exactly one tenth of a second ahead of teammate and world champion Lewis Hamilton.
The Mercedes duo were the only drivers to lap in the 1m27s.
Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel was third quickest, albeit over seven tenths of a second off Rosberg's pace. Teammate Kimi Raikkonen was fourth, with Valtteri Bottas completing the top five in the Williams.
The session was red-flagged 17 minutes in when McLaren's Kevin Magnussen lost control of his car under braking for Turn 6, hitting the wall and damaging the front suspension.
"The crash was my mistake. Just lost the rear on the entry and unfortunately hit the wall and damaged the left front. Another day tomorrow," said Magnussen, who managed just four laps and finished at the bottom of the times.
Teammate Jenson Button had a more productive session and covered 21 laps on his way to the 13th quickest time of the day, although he reported a loss of power near the end of the running.
After missing first practice, Sauber was the first team to take the track with both Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson.
The Swede had a productive session until he damaged his suspension on a kerb 45 minutes into the session and did not return to the track.
Local hero Daniel Ricciardo missed all of the running because his Red Bull team was forced to replace his Renault engine.
Williams driver Felipe Massa also failed to leave the pits after the team had to repair a water leak in the Mercedes power unit.
Manor duo Roberto Merhi and Will Stevens did not take to the track at all once again.
Pos. | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
1 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:27.697 | 27 | |
2 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:27.797 | 0.100 | 23 |
3 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1:28.412 | 0.715 | 33 |
4 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1:28.842 | 1.145 | 33 |
5 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Mercedes | 1:29.265 | 1.568 | 31 |
6 | Daniil Kvyat | Red Bull-Renault | 1:30.016 | 2.319 | 27 |
7 | Carlos Sainz | Toro Rosso-Renault | 1:30.071 | 2.374 | 39 |
8 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus-Mercedes | 1:30.104 | 2.407 | 11 |
9 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus-Mercedes | 1:30.205 | 2.508 | 36 |
10 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 1:30.473 | 2.776 | 30 |
11 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:30.755 | 3.058 | 31 |
12 | Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 1:30.980 | 3.283 | 32 |
13 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Honda | 1:31.387 | 3.690 | 21 |
14 | Max Verstappen | Toro Rosso-Renault | 1:31.395 | 3.698 | 6 |
15 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:32.303 | 4.606 | 14 |
16 | Kevin Magnussen | McLaren-Hoinda | 1:33.289 | 5.592 | 4 |
Be part of Motorsport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments