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F1 German GP: Rosberg leads Mercedes team-mate Hamilton in FP2

Nico Rosberg set the pace in second free practice for the German Grand Prix, outpacing Mercedes Formula 1 team-mate Lewis Hamilton by four-tenths of a second

The home hero had topped the morning session, but initially lagged behind Hamilton on the first runs using the soft Pirelli rubber by four-tenths.

But when the duo then bolted on the super-soft Pirellis, reckoned to be around 1.2 seconds faster than the softs, Rosberg took the upper hand.

First Force India driver Nico Hulkenberg and then Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen hit the top after doing their first super-soft laps, before the two Mercedes drivers.

But Rosberg had his first flier just after the 30-minute mark, setting a time of 1m15.614s to take top spot.

Hamilton then completed his lap, but was slower in all three sectors and ended up 0.394s slower after a slightly ragged effort.

Initially, Red Bull pairing Max Verstappen and Daniel Riccairdo were best of the rest after relegating Raikkonen.

But then Sebastian Vettel, who had a longer break between his runs, finally set his super-soft time just before the 45-minute mark to take second place, six-tenths off Rosberg.

Verstappen and Ricciardo ended up fifth and sixth, with the latter earning criticism from Hamilton late in the session for jinking into the pit exit while passing a slow Manor.

That led to Hamilton moving to the left and complaining over the radio.

Hulkenberg was eventually shuffled down to seventh ahead of Jenson Button, who only completed 16 laps and missed the second half of the session.

Both Button and McLaren-Honda team-mate Fernando Alonso looked to have the potential to go quicker, but ended up slotting into eighth and 10th, sandwiching Force India driver Sergio Perez.

The two Toro Rosso drivers, Carlos Sainz and Daniil Kvyat, were separated by just 25 thousandths of a second in 11th and 12th, ahead of Williams driver Valtteri Bottas.

Romain Grosjean, who appeared to be battling the same problems under braking as he was in the morning session and had both an off and a spin at the Turn 6 hairpin, was 14th fastest, just ahead of Felipe Massa's Williams.

But the Franco-Swiss driver only completed 13 laps during the session, spending much of it in the pits presumably chasing the cause of the vibration under braking he complained about over the radio.

During 90 minutes, multiple drivers, including Hamilton, Vettel, Alonso and Perez, were reported for running wide beyond track limits at Turn 1 - early in the session, race control issued a message to teams that this situation was being carefully monitored.

This led to drivers being regularly warned by their teams, albeit with regular infringements continuing, particularly for Perez.

PRACTICE TWO RESULTS:

Pos Driver Car Time Gap Laps
1 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m15.614s - 43
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m16.008s 0.394s 36
3 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1m16.208s 0.594s 39
4 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Renault 1m16.456s 0.842s 40
5 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull/Renault 1m16.490s 0.876s 38
6 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m16.512s 0.898s 45
7 Nico Hulkenberg Force India/Mercedes 1m16.781s 1.167s 43
8 Jenson Button McLaren/Honda 1m17.087s 1.473s 16
9 Sergio Perez Force India/Mercedes 1m17.148s 1.534s 44
10 Fernando Alonso McLaren/Honda 1m17.225s 1.611s 21
11 Carlos Sainz Jr. Toro Rosso/Ferrari 1m17.342s 1.728s 32
12 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso/Ferrari 1m17.367s 1.753s 38
13 Valtteri Bottas Williams/Mercedes 1m17.425s 1.811s 44
14 Romain Grosjean Haas/Ferrari 1m17.602s 1.988s 13
15 Felipe Massa Williams/Mercedes 1m17.686s 2.072s 40
16 Esteban Gutierrez Haas/Ferrari 1m18.005s 2.391s 42
17 Kevin Magnussen Renault 1m18.056s 2.442s 46
18 Marcus Ericsson Sauber/Ferrari 1m18.130s 2.516s 28
19 Pascal Wehrlein Manor/Mercedes 1m18.193s 2.579s 42
20 Jolyon Palmer Renault 1m18.313s 2.699s 47
21 Rio Haryanto Manor/Mercedes 1m18.591s 2.977s 47
22 Felipe Nasr Sauber/Ferrari 1m19.295s 3.681s 41


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