Rosberg fastest but suffers high speed puncture in incident filled FP2

Aug 21, 2015
3 min read

Nico Rosberg was once again fastest in the afternoon session. However, the German suffered a puncture on his right-rear tyre on the run into Blanchimont.

Luckily for Rosberg, the only damage to the car was caused by the shredding rubber, which ripped a hole in the sidepod. The car managed to stop before hitting the tyre wall.

The tyres had done 11 laps when the incident, which is being regarded as a tyre failure, happened, 6 of which were consecutive on a race run.

Rosberg said that he did not feel any loss in pressure in the tyre, and the team saw nothing on the telemetry that would give them cause for concern.

It remains to be seen as to whether or not there is a fundamental issue with the construction of the tyre, or if Mercedes have been using the rear tyres very aggressively, perhaps similarly to what Red Bull did in 2011 when they were running heavy camber on the front tyres.

This is a circuit where Pirelli are particularly strict in terms of the limitations they give the team for camber and tyre pressures, given the circuit's high speed nature.

Kimi Raikkonen was also struggling with the tyres, as he complained of blistering during his long run.

Tyres were already a talking point before the incidents occurred. The delta time between the soft and mediums tyres was some 1.7 seconds, which could force some of the top teams to use up one of their three sets of soft tyres just to clear Q1.

Lewis Hamilton was 2nd, three tenths off his team mate. Both Mercedes were the only cars to go below 1:50. Despite being second to his team mate in both sessions, Hamilton told Craig Slater at Sky he’s had “generally a good day.”

Marcus Ericsson crashed moments after the session was green flagged after Rosberg’s incident. He ran onto the outside kerb in the middle of Pouhan, lost the rear and skidded across the tarmac run off before hitting the tyre wall.

Red Bull continued with the strong foundation they laid down in FP1, finishing the session 3rd and 4th. This comes as quite a surprise, as we expected the Renault engine to be the team’s limiting factor.

Lotus continued to struggle, with the rear of the car consistently seen to be snapping out violently. Things got worse for the Enstone outlet as Romain Grosjean pulled over to the side of the track at the end of the session having lost drive.

We already knew that McLaren would be taking engine penalties this weekend, and the subtotal before qualifying has been totted up. Jenson Button already has a 25-place grid penalty, and Fernando Alonso a 30-place grid penalty.

Of course, these cannot be fully served but they will not have to carry penalties into the race after a change in the regulations.

However, the balance of the car seems to be coming to the team. Button said on team radio that he was much happier with the front end than he was in FP1.

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