Rosberg leads both Red Bulls in second practice

Nico Rosberg was the fastest driver in FP2 with a 1:21.531, a quarter of a second ahead of Daniil Kvyat with Daniel Ricciardo a further tenth back. Red Bull continued to show the strong pace they had in FP1, although they did their qualifying simulations later than most, meaning the track had more grip when they did their hot laps.

In the early stages of the session, drivers struggled with the low grip conditions. The track began to catch a few drivers out, with Max Verstappen going into the wall at the final corner in the opening few minutes, bringing out the red flag.

When the session got going again, Valtteri Bottas locked his rear brakes going into turn 1 and lost his front wing against the wall, although the rest of his car was unscathed. Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso also had spins.

Hamilton was 4th ahead of the two Ferraris, with Vettel leading Raikkonen. Bottas was 7th, with the two McLarens getting into the top 10 although their program was out of sync with the rest of the field, as they recovered from track time lost in FP1. Jenson Button did not set a lap time for the first half of the session, after reporting an issue on his installation lap. Felipe Massa completed the top 10.

Romain Grosjean was 16th but his session ended early when he pulled over to the side of the track with a clutch issue, bringing out the second red flag of the session.

The threat of rain dominated the final stages of the session. The greasy conditions meant the slicks had no temperature, but the intermediates burnt up very quickly. Fortunately for the fans, the dilemma was only in the final few minutes.

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