Hamilton leads Mercedes 1-2 in FP2

(Mercedes AMG F1 Team)

 

Lewis Hamilton recovered from a very difficult morning session to lead a Mercedes 1-2 in today's Free Practice 2 in Melbourne Australia. The Englishman set a benchmark time of 1m 29.625s finishing 0.157s ahead of Nico Rosberg in the second Mercedes.

 

Fernando Alonso was third fastest for Ferrari while his team mate Kimi Raikkonen suffered a gearbox sensor collaboration failure in the early stages of Free Practice 2. The Finn would eventually finish the second in seventh place just behind Red Bull Racing's Daniel Ricciardo and ahead of Williams Martini Racing's Valtteri Bottas.

 

It was a great session for reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel as the German finished the day in fourth place after missing a large part of the first session this morning.

 

It was a great session for McLaren's Jenson Button as he finished the session 5th place in the MP4-29 putting three Mercedes powered cars in the top five. His team mate Kevin Magnussen continued to show good pace as he finished the session just behind the Williams Martini Racing of Valtteri Bottas in 9th place as newly re-instated McLaren Group CEO Ron Dennis looked on.

 

Sahara Force India's Nico Hulkenberg rounded out the top ten for the Silverstone based team despite spinning and putting his VJM07 into the gravel just before the end of the session.

 

Toro Rosso's Jean Eric Vernge and Williams Martini Racing's Felipe Massa finished the session just outside the top ten in 11th and 12th place respectively as teams worked on their long run pace aswell as concentrating on fuel conservation.

 

Sergio Perez was 13th in the second Force India just ahead of the Sauber duo of Adrian Sutil and Esteban Guiterrez.

 

Daniel Kvyat appeared to struggle during the second session for Toro Rosso as he finished the session in 16th place. Jules Bianchi was the leading running of the 'new teams' as he finished the day in 17th place for the Marussia F1 Team.

 

Romain Grosjean was 18th for the Lotus F1 Team as the Enstone outfits struggles continued. The Frenchman clipped the wall in the final sector damaging his rear wheel resulting in a spin into the gravel just before the end of the session. Grosjean got out on track unlike this morning.

 

Pastor Maldonado, who was out in FP1 didn't manage to get out on track in the second practice session as he suffered from an ERS issue on his E22 so the team have plenty of work to do ahead of tomorrow's running in Free Practice 3 and Qualifying.

 

Neither Caterham driver managed to set a time, however Marcus Ericsson did complete a installation lap unlike his team mate Kamui Kobayashi who was stuck in the garage following the discover of a power unit related fuel system issue.

 

©Ben Johnston 2014