United States – Free Practice 2: Hamilton Ahead of Rosberg by a Breath

The second practice session begins under a blazing sun shining over Austin, as Lewis Hamilton dominated the morning session.

During the first half hour, Valtteri Bottas is the first driver to cross the line, setting a time of 1:44.534. The Finn is on medium tires and is followed by other drivers like Jenson Button and Romain Grosjean who take to the track after him. The Briton takes the lead after a few laps, while the track gradually fills up. Many drivers go wide in turn number 1, the main challenge of this Circuit of the Americas.

After a few laps, Lewis Hamilton takes the lead with a 1:40.993, pushing the two McLaren drivers back by almost a second, and is followed by Nico Rosberg, who concedes half a second to him. But the German recovers the best time after a few laps. Behind, the battle for third place tightens between the two McLaren drivers and Fernando Alonso, while only Sebastian Vettel has yet to take to the track. Jean-Eric Vergne manages to reach fifth position with a 1:41.933. Another Frenchman making a mark: Romain Grosjean spins in the first sector and slides for a few dozen meters, rear wing first, ending without incident.

**After 30 minutes,** Kimi Räikkönen is alone on the track, while the other drivers switch to soft tires, which will be the option range for this weekend. It is at this moment that Sebastian Vettel decides to hit the track, accompanied by Kevin Magnussen. The Dane sets the third-fastest time, just a few hundredths off Lewis Hamilton’s time. The gain from the soft tires seems to be about a second, as the track continues to improve.

Nico Rosberg improves his time to 1:39.088 while Daniel Ricciardo falls short by 1.3 seconds. Lewis Hamilton, for his part, takes second place by 53 thousandths conceded to his teammate.

At the back of the standings, Sebastian Vettel is already set for long stints, which is a logical choice given that the German will start from the pits during the race after changing his entire power unit. After a few laps, Lewis Hamilton manages to improve Nico Rosberg’s best time by 3 thousandths to climb to the top of the timesheet. Then it’s Fernando Alonso’s turn to rank in 3rd position ahead of Daniel Ricciardo and Felipe Massa.

After an hour, the drivers are all on long stints to test the longevity of the tires brought by Pirelli to the Austin circuit. During these long stints, there are minor issues at Mercedes, as Nico Rosberg’s engine suffers from an abnormal noise for a few seconds: after a few minutes, it turns out that it was the German’s mistake at the wheel that caused the issue. And a few minutes later, it’s Lewis Hamilton who has to return to the pits due to a problem with his car. After completing his long stint on soft tires, Sebastian Vettel comes back in and doesn’t seem to return: at Red Bull, the priority is saving the power unit. Only these two drivers are not on track 12 minutes before the end of this session.

So it’s Lewis Hamilton who finishes this session in the first position, ahead of Nico Rosberg and Fernando Alonso. But watch out for reliability for the Briton.