Silver Arrows run 1-2 again, although gap to the rest slightly less than P1; Ferraris next up ahead of Williams and Red Bull; McLaren struggle as Magnussen crashes out; both Saubers on track as Van der Garde legal challenge rumbles on
Monday 16 March 2015 14:11, UK
Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton made it a Mercedes double 1-2 in Friday practice after setting the pace once more in the second session at Melbourne's Albert Park.
As was the case earlier, Rosberg set the pace with a 1:27.697 lap to go 0.1s faster than Hamilton. The Silver Arrows were over a second faster than the rest during session one but the gap came down slightly when cars switched to soft compound tyres in P2.
"It's better than being second quickest!" said Rosberg after his Friday double. "It won't make that much difference because there is so little between us but it's been a great day for the team. We've definitely shown we have a strong car. With Lewis, it's close, he's driving well, it's going to be a big battle. I need to nail car set-up because I am not quite there yet. It's a particular challenge here."
Rosberg’s advantage over the third fastest driver, Sebastian Vettel, was 0.715s and with new Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen fourth, the session was an encouraging one for the Scuderia.
Raikkonen also showed strongly on his long run, although whether they do emerge as ‘best of the rest’ behind Mercedes will only become clear later in the weekend. But for now Ferrari enjoy an edge over expected rivals Williams and Red Bull.
“The whole package has been a big improvement and the team has done a good job over the winter, but obviously we still have work to do," said Raikkonen.
"We had to start somewhere and compared to last year it is a good step. But it was not an ideal day, I’m not driving very well, not putting the lap together, but we changed the car for the longer run and it seemed to work a bit better. So that is positive, just need to put things together.”
Valtteri Bottas was fifth fastest for Williams and although Daniil Kvyat was P6 for Red Bull, the gap between the pair stood at almost 0.8s.
Both teams also struggled with reliability, with Felipe Massa sidelined by a water leak on his Williams FW37 while Daniel Ricciardo also played no part in the session after his Red Bull RB11 needed an engine change.
Less surprising, perhaps, were the struggles endured by McLaren. Problems with Honda’s new power unit limited their P1 running to just 13 laps in total and they suffered another setback early in P2 when Kevin Magnussen hit the barriers at Turn 6.
Speaking to Sky F1 as he returned to the paddock, Fernando Alonso’s stand-in said the car’s behaviour under braking had taken him “by surprise”. However, Magnussen later took to Twitter to announce that the crash was “my mistake”.
Button continued until a loss of power also curtailed his running. He never climbed higher than P13 and ended the session about 3.7s slower than Rosberg.
Carlos Sainz was seventh fastest on his debut weekend for Toro Rosso, with Lotus pair Pastor Maldonado and Romain Grosjean eighth and ninth ahead of Nico Hulkenberg's Force India.
Next up was Felipe Nasr, who was first out on track for the session after Sauber missed P1 altogether. Of course, they have pressing matters to deal with elsewhere - literally the case on Friday as Victoria's Supreme Court heard Giedo van der Garde's case against the team at the same time as Nasr and Marcus Ericsson lapped Albert Park.
An attempt by the Dutchman to enforce a court order enabling him to take part this weekend has again been delayed - the next sitting is scheduled for Saturday morning - meaning that the various penalties Sauber could face, ranging from sequestration of their assets to the imprisonment of team principal Monisha Kaltenborn, were not, thankfully, imposed.
Ericsson suffered suspension damage during the session and ended up 15th behind Max Verstappen, whose running was limited to just six laps because of an apparent battery problem on his Toro Rosso.
As in P1, meanwhile, there was no appearance from the Manor cars, which have been blighted by software problems, although the team hope to fix them ahead of third practice.
Practice Two timesheet:
1) Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1:27.697
2) Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1:27.797
3) Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 1:28.412
4) Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1:28.842
5) Valtteri Bottas, Williams, 1:29.265
6) Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull, 1:30.016
7) Carlos Sainz, Toro Rosso, 1:30.071
8) Pastor Maldonado, Lotus, 1:30.104
9) Romain Grosjean, Lotus, 1:30.205
10) Nico Hulkenberg, Force India, 1:30.473
11) Felipe Nasr, Sauber, 1:30.755
12) Sergio Perez, Force India, 1:30.980
13) Jenson Button, McLaren, 1:31.387
14) Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, 1:31.395
15) Marcus Ericsson, Sauber, 1:32.303
16) Kevin Magnussen, McLaren, 1:33.289.
