Rosberg over Hamilton in 2nd German GP Practice

Nico Rosberg

Nico Rosberg again topped the time sheets in practice for the German GP. In Friday afternoon's 2nd practice session Rosberg was the only driver to dip into the 1m15s bracket with a time of 1m15.614s to lead his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton by 4/10ths of a sec.

Sebastian Vettel was again third for Ferrari 6/10ths behind Rosberg.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen and Daniel Riccardo rounded out the top-5.

QUOTES

Nico Rosberg
A good start to the weekend. It's great to be back here in Hockenheim at this historic track. The tarmac is old, so the way the tires work is completely different to in Hungary where the tarmac was new. Here it's much more snappy and more of a challenge. But in general our car was working well out there today. Saying that, in Hungary we were very quick on Friday but then on Saturday and Sunday everyone was very close. So, we are warned by that to not get over-excited on a Friday. It's a good start but we'll see more tomorrow.

Lewis Hamilton
It's been a very chilled Friday. The weather has been good and the track feels great. It's the original track surface, so it's nice and bumpy and has lots of character. We had a fairly straightforward two sessions today. No real surprises and a good first step for the weekend. We'll see where we are in qualifying tomorrow.

Paddy Lowe, Executive Director (Technical)
A good day to start the weekend, with no major issues on either side of the garage, a full program completed and our pace looking reasonably good. The main focus has been on understanding the Soft and Supersoft tires – particularly on long runs, to see which race strategies will make most sense on Sunday. There was a little bit of stress this afternoon with race direction concerning track limits at T1 – particularly concerning Lewis' position with two reprimands already to his name – so we compromised our program somewhat to ensure that he avoided a third. Overall, though, it's great to be back at the Hockenheimring and we're looking forward to a good battle in qualifying tomorrow.

Results

1. Nico Rosberg GER Mercedes-Mercedes 1m 15.614s
2. Lewis Hamilton GBR Mercedes-Mercedes 1m 16.008s
3. Sebastian Vettel GER Ferrari-Ferrari 1m 16.208s
4. Max Verstappen NED Red Bull-TAG 1m 16.456s
5. Daniel Ricciardo AUS Red Bull-TAG 1m 16.490s
6. Kimi Raikkonen FIN Ferrari-Ferrari 1m 16.512s
7. Nico Hulkenberg GER Force India-Mercedes 1m 16.781s
8. Jenson Button GBR McLaren-Honda 1m 17.087s
9. Sergio Perez MEX Force India-Mercedes 1m 17.148s
10. Fernando Alonso ESP McLaren-Honda 1m 17.225s
11. Carlos Sainz Jr ESP Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m 17.342s
12. Daniil Kvyat RUS Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m 17.367s
13. Valtteri Bottas FIN Williams-Mercedes 1m 17.425s
14. Romain Grosjean FRA Haas-Ferrari 1m 17.602s
15. Felipe Massa BRZ Williams-Mercedes 1m 17.686s
16. Esteban Gutierrez MEX Haas-Ferrari 1m 18.005s
17. Kevin Magnussen DEN Renault-Renault 1m 18.056s
18. Marcus Ericsson SWE Sauber-Ferrari 1m 18.130s
19. Pascal Wehrlein GER Manor-Mercedes 1m 18.193s
20. Jolyon Palmer GBR Renault-Renault 1m 18.313s
21. Rio Haryanto INA Manor-Mercedes 1m 18.591s
22. Felipe Nasr BRA Sauber-Ferrari 1m 19.295s