Hamilton finds more pace to lead second practice

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F1 Grand Prix, GP Malaysia, Sepang International Circuitmy

Lewis Hamilton turned the table on Rosberg and topped the timesheet in second practice, having been earlier outpaced by the latter. While the Mercedes fitted softs for the first time this weekend, Ferrari edged somewhat closer, reducing their gap to the pace setter to less than 7 tenths.

Behind Vettel, Kimi Raikkonen was an additional 2 tenths down while Max Verstappen now went 5th fastest, ahead of Perez and Alonso.

The top 10 in this session was completed by Ricciardo, Hulkenberg and Button, making it the same 5 teams that fill the top 10 spots on the timing sheet as in the morning session.

Running went smoothly overall, but a blistering hot 54°C on track made for a slippery track early in the session while reducing the advantage of the soft tyres compared to the other two compounds.

Kevin Magnussen remarkably made it back on track after his car caught fire in FP1. Renault's mechanics had their hands full getting his car ready again, but managed to get the Dane out with an hour left in the session.

Results

Pos.No.DriverCarTimeGapLaps
144Lewis HamiltonMercedes1:34.944-35
26Nico RosbergMercedes1:35.177+0.233s36
35Sebastian VettelFerrari1:35.605+0.661s37
47Kimi RäikkönenFerrari1:35.842+0.898s31
533Max VerstappenRed Bull Racing Tag Heuer1:36.037+1.093s29
611Sergio PerezForce India Mercedes1:36.284+1.340s33
714Fernando AlonsoMcLaren Honda1:36.296+1.352s27
83Daniel RicciardoRed Bull Racing Tag Heuer1:36.337+1.393s30
927Nico HulkenbergForce India Mercedes1:36.390+1.446s37
1022Jenson ButtonMcLaren Honda1:36.715+1.771s22
1155Carlos SainzToro Rosso Ferrari1:36.836+1.892s30
1230Jolyon PalmerRenault1:36.940+1.996s36
1377Valtteri BottasWilliams Mercedes1:37.016+2.072s37
1421Esteban GutierrezHaas Ferrari1:37.048+2.104s28
1519Felipe MassaWilliams Mercedes1:37.110+2.166s19
1626Daniil KvyatToro Rosso Ferrari1:37.297+2.353s29
179Marcus EricssonSauber Ferrari1:37.449+2.505s28
1812Felipe NasrSauber Ferrari1:37.547+2.603s26
1920Kevin MagnussenRenault1:37.664+2.720s19
208Romain GrosjeanHaas Ferrari1:37.789+2.845s25
2194Pascal WehrleinMrt Mercedes1:37.878+2.934s34
2231Esteban OconMrt Mercedes1:37.990+3.046s36