Rosberg edges Hamilton in second practice

2015 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix second practice

Posted on

| Written by

Mercedes preserved their position at the top of the times sheets in the second practice session – but this time it was Nico Rosberg who was fastest.

Lewis Hamilton was slightly quicker than his team mate at the beginning of the session on the soft tyres. But after switching to the faster super-soft rubber Rosberg became the only driver to lap the Yas Marina circuit in under one minute 42 seconds, pegging his team mate back.

A close battle behind the two silver cars was led not by a Ferrari, Williams or Red Bull as usual, but Sergio Perez’s Force India. However he hit trouble on his race simulation run at the end of the session, pulling into the pits with a fire developing in his left-rear brake.

Perez edged Daniel Ricciardo for third place by 37 thousandths of a second. Sebastian Vettel, who began the session by singing “happy birthday” in Italian to his race engineer Ricardo Adami on the team’s radio, was not far behind in fifth. Ricciardo and Vettel’s team mates were next – the group of five separate by little more than two-tenths of a second.

Fernando Alonso gave Mclaren some encouragement by putting his car in ninth place, within a second of Rosberg’s pace. However fellow Spaniard Carlos Sainz Jnr pulled over at turn seven after another failure on his Toro Rosso.

Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
16Nico RosbergMercedes1’41.98338
244Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’42.1210.13831
311Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’42.6100.62723
43Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-Renault1’42.6470.66436
55Sebastian VettelFerrari1’42.7170.73435
626Daniil KvyatRed Bull-Renault1’42.7980.81534
77Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’42.8490.86636
827Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1’42.9280.94535
914Fernando AlonsoMcLaren-Honda1’42.9550.97231
1013Pastor MaldonadoLotus-Mercedes1’43.4311.44837
1177Valtteri BottasWilliams-Mercedes1’43.4411.45832
1219Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes1’43.5061.52332
1333Max VerstappenToro Rosso-Renault1’43.6621.67939
1455Carlos Sainz JnrToro Rosso-Renault1’43.8541.87120
158Romain GrosjeanLotus-Mercedes1’43.9291.94627
1622Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Honda1’44.0502.06731
1712Felipe NasrSauber-Ferrari1’44.1162.13336
189Marcus EricssonSauber-Ferrari1’45.2453.26228
1928Will StevensManor-Ferrari1’46.4504.46735
2098Roberto MerhiManor-Ferrari1’47.0225.03927

Second practice visual gaps

Nico Rosberg – 1’41.983

+0.138 Lewis Hamilton – 1’42.121

+0.627 Sergio Perez – 1’42.610

+0.664 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’42.647

+0.734 Sebastian Vettel – 1’42.717

+0.815 Daniil Kvyat – 1’42.798

+0.866 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’42.849

+0.945 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’42.928

+0.972 Fernando Alonso – 1’42.955

+1.448 Pastor Maldonado – 1’43.431

+1.458 Valtteri Bottas – 1’43.441

+1.523 Felipe Massa – 1’43.506

+1.679 Max Verstappen – 1’43.662

+1.871 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’43.854

+1.946 Romain Grosjean – 1’43.929

+2.067 Jenson Button – 1’44.050

+2.133 Felipe Nasr – 1’44.116

+3.262 Marcus Ericsson – 1’45.245

+4.467 Will Stevens – 1’46.450

+5.039 Roberto Merhi – 1’47.022

Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

9 comments on “Rosberg edges Hamilton in second practice”

  1. Don’t let this one slip from your hands Lewis.

  2. Mclaren Alonso in top 10. Not bad n good performance.

  3. As soon as McLaren stopped focussing on improving they pull this one out of their hat.
    Maybe that’s what they should’ve done all year!

    1. Fernando definitely set his time on very low fuel, because there is no way he is over a second faster than Jenson on pure pace. Their long runs were pretty bad, miles of the pace compared to the front runners. Wouldn’t surprise me at all if neither of them would reach Q2 tomorrow. Even the Manors had better straight line speed than them.

      1. maybe it’s all due to the 2016 parts.

  4. any video of Vettel singing on team radio? There was a video of him singing La Italia after Singapore GP victory.
    The guy is really loving this new year at the new team, isn’t he?

    1. Better watch it before FOM notices
      http://youtu.be/VkEPfUG3hk4

    2. OmarRoncal - Go Seb!!! (@)
      27th November 2015, 16:44

      Hahahhaa great Seb as always!!!

Comments are closed.