Nico Rosberg remains quickest in a dry/wet FP2 at the Red Bull Ring

In a dry/wet FP2 practice session in Austria, Nico Rosberg set the pace ahead of his team mate Lewis Hamilton and Nico Hulkenberg in session which saw Rosberg beating Hamilton by just 0.019s.

Both of the two Mercedes drivers set their times either side of a rainstorm midway through the session, with Rosberg clocking his on super-soft tyres on a bone-dry circuit, while Hamilton used ultra-softs on a track that was still damp off the racing line after the rain.

Hamilton’s lap was also set on his second flying lap on a fresh set of tyres after he aborted his first attempt after coming across a slow-moving Esteban Gutierrez at Turn 5.

Rosberg then attempted a quick lap on ultra-softs at the end of the session but after setting fastest first and second sectors dived into the pit, opting not to set a lap time. His best effort was still 0.6s shy of his best effort in the fully-dry morning session, suggesting none of the times offer a true representation of each driver’s ultimate pace.

During FP2, Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel spun off on a late attempt on ultra-soft tyres. The rear of the Ferrari snapped out under braking, pitching car into a 360 degree spin before it beached itself in the gravel. “I don’t know what happened there,” Vettel said over the team raido. “I lost completely the car when I hit the brakes.”

The heavy rain approached the circuit from the east, drenching Turns 8 and 9 first while the first sector remained bone dry. A number of drivers were caught out by the sudden downpour, with several spinning off at Turn 8 before recovering to the pit lane. At its peak, the rainstorm blew over parasols in the seating area of exclusive F1’s Paddock Club, while mini waves of water blew down the pit straight.

The weather brought a halt to proceedings for a good 20 minutes before the Red Bull drivers headed out on track on the intermediate tyres. But the rain that fell on the first sector had mostly dried up and only the final sector was wet enough for the tyre choice. A combination of sunshine and track running meant the circuit was dry enough for slicks in the final 20 minutes as steam continued to rise from the track off the racing line.

But it was Nico Rosberg who was fastest with a lap time of 1:07.967 ahead of his team mate Lewis Hamilton in second place who was 0.019 seconds behind him and ahead of Nico Hulkenberg in third place who was 0.613 seconds behind Rosberg.

Sebastian Vettel finished the session in fourth place ahead of Daniel Ricciardo in fifth place, Carlos Sainz Jr in sixth place, Max Verstappen in seventh place, Kimi Raikkonen in ninth place, Valtteri Bottas in ninth place and Jenson Button who rounded off the top ten finishers.

Fernando Alonso ended the session in eleventh place ahead of Felipe Massa in twelfth place, Daniil Kvyat in thirteenth place, Sergio Perez in fourteenth place and Kevin Magnussen in fifteenth place.

As we head into the latter stages of the grid, Jolyon Palmer ended the session in sixteenth place ahead of Pascal Wehrlein in seventeenth place, Esteban Gutierrez in eighteenth place, Marcus Ericsson in nineteenth place, Romain Grosjean in twentieth place, Rio Haryanto in twenty-first place and Rio Haryanto in twenty-second place.

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

1. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1:07.967
2. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 0.019s
3. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India-Mercedes, 0.613s
4. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 0.622s
5. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull-TAG Heuer, 0.682s
6. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 0.746s
7. Max Verstappen, Red-Bull-TAG Heuer, 0.794s
8. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 0.853s
9. Valtteri Bottas, Williams-Mercedes, 0.974s
10. Jenson Button, McLaren-Honda, 1.027s
11. Fernando Alonso, McLaren-Honda, 1.108s
12. Felipe Massa, Williams-Mercedes, 1.217s
13. Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, 1.240s
14. Sergio Perez, Force India-Mercedes, 1.259s
15. Kevin Magnussen, Renault, 1.588s
16. Jolyon Palmer, Renault, 2.053s
17. Pascal Wehrlein, MRT Racing, 2.067s
18. Esteban Gutierrez, Haas Ferrari, 2.171s
19. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber-Ferrari, 2.173s
20. Romain Grosjean, Haas Ferrari, 2.433s
21. Felipe Nasr, Sauber-Ferrari, 2.477s
22. Rio Haryanto, MRT Racing, 3.361s

Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa