Australia – FP2: Rosberg and Mercedes far ahead, Ferrari shows up

Felipe Nasr is the first driver to take to the track, defying the legal ban on the Swiss team due to their legal issues with Giedo van der Garde. He is followed by Marcus Ericsson and Romain Grosjean, who did not drive this morning. Kimi Räikkönen sets the first benchmark at 1:39.368, a lap that is quickly improved upon by the different drivers.

Meanwhile, Daniel Ricciardo is stuck in the pits: Red Bull has to change the power unit of his car. Felipe Massa also will not take part in this testing session, as his unit requires repairs, while Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Räikkönen exchange the lead in this session.

After about twenty minutes, Kevin Magnussen caused a red flag by going off at turn number 6, with the McLaren ending up in the wall.

After 30 minutes, Räikkönen sets the fastest time on soft tires, 1:28.842, before his new teammate improves by 4 tenths. Marcus Ericsson is slowed down on track with smoke coming from the left rear tire, the suspension bent after going over a curb: the Sauber driver returns at a slow pace.

Mid-session, Nico Rosberg sets the fastest time on soft tires: 1:27.697, which is equivalent to 0.7s ahead of Sebastian Vettel. Lewis Hamilton then falls short by 0.1s of his teammate’s time before heading back to the pits. At Toro Rosso, Max Verstappen’s car begins to be dismantled due to a KERS issue: many drivers will end this free practice session on foot. At Mercedes, complete parity is applied: both drivers go out a few seconds apart for the same program.

After an hour into this session, the teams begin to perform race simulations, with over a dozen drivers on track using varied strategies, even though Mercedes’ dominance seems to be confirmed beyond pure speed. The drivers alternately fit the soft tires they just used for their qualifying lap simulation, then their medium tires used at the beginning of the session. The laps are now being strung together to assess fuel consumption and tire degradation on this Melbourne circuit.

It is therefore Nico Rosberg who is at the top of the timesheet after this second free practice session, narrowly ahead of his teammate Lewis Hamilton. The two men have more than half a second’s advantage over Sebastian Vettel and his Ferrari.

Australian Grand Prix – Free Practice 2: