F1 2016: Rosberg tops FP2 time sheets ahead of Raikkonen

Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Riakkonen topped the time sheets for Ferrari during the first practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya, Spain. But Nico Rosberg of Mercedes was fastest in the second session of free practice on Friday.

By running the softy tyres, Ferrari were the quickest with both cars over the Mercedes duo who only ran the medium compound Pirellis in the first session session.

But Rosberg managed to edge over Raikkonen by +0.254 seconds to be the fastest during FP2.  Respective team mates Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel were third and fourth fastest.

Carlos Sainz managed to clock in a time of 1:25.131 to be fifth fastest in the session for Torro Rosso during his home grand prix. Sainz out paced even the superior Red Bull cars of Daniel Ricciardo in sixth and Max Verstappen eighth.

Former world champion, Fernando Alonso split the two Red Bull cars for McLaren with the seventh fastest time of the session. Rounding off the top ten, were the two Force India’s of Segio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg who finished the second session ninth and tenth respectively.

Daniil Kvyat, was swapped from Red Bull to the sister team Torro Rosso after the incident during the Russian GP with Sebastian Vettel. Kvyat was 12^th fastest in FP1 and 15^th fastest in FP2.

Williams faced a difficult Friday with both cars out of the top ten. Valtteri Bottas was 11^th fastest and Felipe Massa only managed 16^th. Jolyon Palmer didn’t have smooth afternoon either. After sitting down in FP1 for Esteban Ocon, Palmer suffered a left-rear puncture on the main straight early on, red flagging the session following the virtual safety car. Palmer managed to continue on to set only a 17^th fastest time.