F1: Vettel tops Practice 2 in Austria
Sebastian Vettel fastest despite gremlins |
Despite having more problems with his Ferrari, this time his gearbox, Sebastian Vettel turned the fastest lap in the 2nd practice session for the Austrian GP at the Red Bull Ring. Vettel's time of 1m09.600s set early in the session before his gearbox acted up was fast enough to pip Nico Rosberg's sandbagging Mercedes by just 0.011sec.
After only getting 4 laps in during the morning session, Vettel sat out the 2nd half of the afternoon session with gearbox woes.
Kimi Raikkonen was third for Ferrari followed by the Lotus Mercedes of Pastor Maldonado.
Meanwhile the sandbagging Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton was down in 5th focusing on race trim and long runs.
Just 1 second covered the top 10 drivers on this tight Austrian circuit. It's only the third time a non-Mercedes car has finished on top in a practice session this season, but they were focusing on race trim so it means nothing. Tomorrow in qualifying they will likely smoke everyone.
Counter to that however, is all the issues Vettel had yet he was still fastest. Is it possible Ferrari can give Mercedes a run for their money on Sunday?
Results
Pos | Driver | Car | Time | Behind | Laps |
1 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari/Ferrari | 1m09.600s | 0.000s | 28 |
2 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes/Mercedes | 1m09.611s | 0.011s | 50 |
3 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari/Ferrari | 1m09.860s | 0.260s | 41 |
4 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus/Mercedes | 1m09.914s | 0.314s | 44 |
5 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes/Mercedes | 1m10.137s | 0.537s | 49 |
6 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India/Mercedes | 1m10.160s | 0.560s | 49 |
7 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus/Mercedes | 1m10.267s | 0.667s | 38 |
8 | Max Verstappen | Toro Rosso/Renault | 1m10.356s | 0.756s | 48 |
9 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber/Ferrari | 1m10.495s | 0.895s | 39 |
10 | Sergio Perez | Force India/Mercedes | 1m10.585s | 0.985s | 46 |
11 | Carlos Sainz | Toro Rosso/Renault | 1m10.631s | 1.031s | 50 |
12 | Daniil Kvyat | Red Bull/Renault | 1m10.686s | 1.086s | 48 |
13 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber/Ferrari | 1m10.744s | 1.144s | 40 |
14 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams/Mercedes | 1m10.746s | 1.146s | 34 |
15 | Felipe Massa | Williams/Mercedes | 1m11.011s | 1.411s | 42 |
16 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren/Honda | 1m11.517s | 1.917s | 17 |
17 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull/Renault | 1m11.676s | 2.076s | 38 |
18 | Jenson Button | McLaren/Honda | 1m11.919s | 2.319s | 17 |
19 | Will Stevens | Marussia/Ferrari | 1m12.522s | 2.922s | 34 |
20 | Roberto Merhi | Marussia/Ferrari | 1m13.094s | 3.494s | 34 |