Hockenheim FP2: Rosberg has the edge over Hamilton

Mercedes set the pace on the first day of the German Grand Prix weekend, with Nico Rosberg setting the pace on home soil with the quickest time in the second free practice session, once again finishing ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton at the Hockenheimring.

In the morning session Rosberg had eclipsed Hamilton by 0.326 in the morning session and though in the afternoon both set slightly slower best times, with Rosberg posting a 1:15.614, the German this time beat new championship leader Hamilton by almost four tenths of a second.

Sebastian Vettel claimed the third position he had also occupied earlier in the day. but whereas he had been 1.1s adrift of Rosberg in FP1 this time, in qualifying trim, the Ferrari driver took half a second out of the gap to finish 0.594 behind the top Mercedes.

However, while Vettel repeated his morning placing, Kimi Raikkonen who finished directly behind the four-time champion in the first session, this time lost out to the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo. It was a close-run thing, though with the trio separated by just 0.056s.

After finishing 15th and 16th in FP1, when they only ran the medium tyres, Force India fared better in the afternoon with Nico Hulkenberg claiming P7 on the supersoft tyres. At his home race Hulkenberg finished 0.367s and two places higher than team-mate Sergio Perez.

Eighth place in the session went to McLaren’s Jenson Button, though the Briton later had to make a trip to the medical centre, after complaining that he head been “irritated” by something in the cockpit. Tenth place in the session went to Button’s team-mate Fernando Alonso.