Rosberg tops second practice

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F1 Grand Prix, GP USA, Circuit of The Americasus

Nico Rosberg was the fastest man on Friday afternoon at Austin, going round the Circuit of the Americas in 1:37.358. Daniel Ricciardo was close in second and split the Mercedes on the upper edge of the classification.

After the early runs on supersofts, drivers settled to do some longer runs, during which Ricciardo and Vettel were particularly impressive when compared to the Mercedes drivers.

Sebastian Vettel actually completed 23 laps on a set of softs, before switching to used super softs for another 12 laps. Nico Rosberg and Daniel Ricciardo focused on the soft tyres whereas Lewis Hamilton ended the session with a 19-lap stint on a set of medium tyres he used earlier on. He did complain about vibration on this set however, but still continued nonetheless.

One hour into the session, the session was halted for a short minute to remove a piece of carbon fibre that had come off of Romain Grosjean's Haas. As it laid in the middle of the track in the twisty section of Sector 1, it was impossible to be removed with cars still on the track. Esteban Gutierrez was later also seen losing parts of his car in the same high speed section.

Daniil Kvyat meanwhile caused the radio moment of the day, asking his engineer "Is he racing already or what? It's Friday!". Kvyat had seen Vettel running alongside him through several subsequent corners of the first sector, until the German Ferrari drivers eventually back out of it.

Results

Pos.No.DriverCarTimeGapLaps
16Nico RosbergMercedes1:37.358-33
23Daniel RicciardoRed Bull Racing Tag Heuer1:37.552+0.194s33
344Lewis HamiltonMercedes1:37.649+0.291s32
45Sebastian VettelFerrari1:38.178+0.820s35
533Max VerstappenRed Bull Racing Tag Heuer1:38.258+0.900s27
627Nico HulkenbergForce India Mercedes1:38.508+1.150s32
711Sergio PerezForce India Mercedes1:38.568+1.210s31
822Jenson ButtonMcLaren Honda1:38.713+1.355s29
914Fernando AlonsoMcLaren Honda1:38.801+1.443s30
107Kimi RäikkönenFerrari1:38.865+1.507s31
1155Carlos SainzToro Rosso Ferrari1:38.971+1.613s31
1220Kevin MagnussenRenault1:39.159+1.801s23
1312Felipe NasrSauber Ferrari1:39.189+1.831s28
1477Valtteri BottasWilliams Mercedes1:39.197+1.839s34
1526Daniil KvyatToro Rosso Ferrari1:39.202+1.844s36
1619Felipe MassaWilliams Mercedes1:39.281+1.923s30
1730Jolyon PalmerRenault1:39.455+2.097s34
188Romain GrosjeanHaas Ferrari1:39.554+2.196s24
1931Esteban OconMrt Mercedes1:40.086+2.728s27
2021Esteban GutierrezHaas Ferrari1:40.114+2.756s26
219Marcus EricssonSauber Ferrari1:40.219+2.861s28
2294Pascal WehrleinMrt Mercedes1:41.131+3.773s31