Just a quarter of a second splits Mercedes and Ferrari; Vettel and Hamilton don't manage clean laps; Alonso seventh in heavily revised McLaren; Ricciardo beats Verstappen by two tenths
Saturday 14 May 2016 10:46, UK
Nico Rosberg set the pace in Practice Two for Mercedes, but Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen was in close proximity at the top of the times.
The gap between the pair was just 0.254 seconds, a significant reduction of four tenths from the gap between the two teams in the corresponding session at the previous race in Russia. Raikkonen's time was posted on used soft tyres, further underlining the pace the Finn demonstrated.
"I don't get the feeling that Mercedes looks anywhere as dominant as it normally does when I am out here on a Friday," said Sky Sports F1's Martin Brundle from trackside.
In the sister cars neither Lewis Hamilton nor Sebastian Vettel managed clean flying laps due to a mixture of traffic and driving errors. The world champion was third quickest, seven tenths down on Rosberg, with the Ferrari driver fourth, a further four tenths back.
"It is definitely tighter in Barcelona because of all the testing the teams know the set up," said Mercedes boss Toto Wolff. "But it is tricky, you could see that Lewis wasn't really happy with his car, so we haven't found the sweet spot yet."
On home soil Carlos Sainz was a remarkable fifth for Toro Rosso as he once again demonstrated his pace. The Spaniard may have seen his former team-mate Max Verstappen promoted to the senior team ahead of this weekend, but emerged top of all four Red Bull backed drivers in the session. Sainz was a massive 1.2 seconds quicker than Daniil Kvyat in the sister Toro Rosso.
Daniel Ricciardo was sixth, two tenths ahead of Verstappen, with the new team-mates split by Fernando Alonso in a heavily revised McLaren.
The Woking team have new front and rear wings in Barcelona, as well as brake duct and floor changes on the MP4-31.
Renault too have a host of updates in Spain, but their struggles continued as Jolyon Palmer lost most of the session following an early puncture.
The left rear on his car blew up on the pit-straight causing a red flag as well as substantial damage to the floor. The Briton did manage some further laps late in the session, but will go into Saturday on the back foot after missing Practice One where he was replaced by reserve driver Esteban Ocon.
Practice Two timesheet
1. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1:23.922
2. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, +0.254
3. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, +0.719
4. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, +1.095
5. Carlos Sainz, Toro Rosso, +1.209
6. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, +1.272
7. Fernando Alonso, McLaren, +1.420
8. Max Verstappen, Red Bull, +1.453
9. Sergio Perez, Force India, +1.515
10. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India, +1.531
11. Valtteri Bottas, Williams, +1.786
12. Jenson Button, McLaren, +1.971
13. Romain Grosjean, Haas, +1.977
14. Kevin Magnussen, Renault, +2.322
15. Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, +2.453
16. Felipe Massa, Williams, +2.569
17. Jolyon Palmer, Renault, +2.848
18. Pascal Wehrlein, Manor, +3.038
19. Rio Haryanto, Manor, +3.330
20. Felipe Nasr, Sauber, +3.890
21. Esteban Gutierrez, Haas, +4.283
22. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber, +4.579
