Hamilton pips Rosberg - then hits trouble

Lewis Hamilton narrowly edged team mate and championship rival Nico Rosberg in second practice – but was then sidelined with a technical problem.

Rosberg initially set the pace when the pair did their performance runs on the soft compound tyre, beating Hamilton by 0.053 seconds. But unlike his team mate Hamilton chose to do another lap, and despite being advised the tyres would drop off by two-tenths of a second, he found a small improvement to pip Rosberg by three thousandths of a second.

Hamilton’s session came to an early end, however. Shortly after reporting a problem with an upshift he was called into the pits for attention to his car.

Rosberg also said he had a problem with a gear change during the session, but his car kept running.

The two Mercedes asserted their usual performance margin over the rest, with Fernando Alonso over a second off Hamilton’s pace in third.

Daniel Ricciardo had a more productive outing in the Red Bull and ended up fourth-quickest. Sebastian Vettel, however, was the slowest of the 18 runners after spending half an hour in the pits at the beginning of the session.

Both the Lotus drivers continued to struggle – first Romain Grosjean and then Pastor Maldonado had spins during the session. Grosjean also experienced trouble with his MGU-K.

As in the first practice session, a test of the new Virtual Safety Car was conducted at the end.

Pos.	No.	Driver	Car	Best lap	Gap	Laps
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1’39.085		18
2	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1’39.088	0.003	34
3	14	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1’40.189	1.104	29
4	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull-Renault	1’40.390	1.305	30
5	19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	1’40.457	1.372	36
6	7	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1’40.543	1.458	32
7	26	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso-Renault	1’40.631	1.546	34
8	20	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes	1’40.641	1.556	38
9	22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1’40.698	1.613	36
10	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1’40.800	1.715	25
11	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	1’40.828	1.743	37
12	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	1’41.054	1.969	31
13	25	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Renault	1’41.110	2.025	36
14	11	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	1’41.123	2.038	35
15	13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault	1’41.158	2.073	37
16	99	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari	1’41.332	2.247	33
17	21	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber-Ferrari	1’41.420	2.335	34
18	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	1’43.980	4.895	19

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17 comments on “Hamilton pips Rosberg – then hits trouble”

OmarR-Pepper (@)
31st October 2014, 20:36

Is’nt that usual? (Hamilton getting 1st on practice and stalling then) Maybe Hamilton sees how to reach the edge , so he controls that during the actual race.
Biggsy
31st October 2014, 20:36

Well, hopefully, he hits trouble on the race day too.
1. Uzair Syed (@ultimateuzair)
  31st October 2014, 20:39
  
  No, I hope not. I want to see a fair fight between Lewis and Nico on Saturday and Sunday. I don’t want any mechanical failures from Lewis and Nico for the rest of the season.
2. Steve
  31st October 2014, 21:32
  
  Agreed!
3. rushfan
  31st October 2014, 23:09
  
  It’s right to fear Lewis in a reliable car :)
Uzair Syed (@ultimateuzair)
31st October 2014, 20:38

Unlucky for Lewis, but the mechanics have plenty of time to fix his car for tomorrow.
f1aroo (@f1aroo)
31st October 2014, 20:57

Two very good drivers in like cars. It would be a shame if mechanical issues dictated the championship
1. Captain Shuntalot (@f1withmyson)
  31st October 2014, 21:37
  
  Or stupid double points.
2. Francorchamps (@francorchamps17)
  31st October 2014, 22:08
  
  @f1aroo Or if a driver taking out the other one decided the championship.
  
  Oh wait…
  1. Bob
    31st October 2014, 22:25
    
    That’s a great point. The suggestion that only double points orechanical failures in the last race can artificially affect the championship is wrong. You have to consider the whole season.
  2. rushfan
    31st October 2014, 23:10
    
    or doing a professional fowl in qualifying….oh,hang on!
    1. rushfan
      31st October 2014, 23:11
      
      did i just spell foul like that..
    2. DaveD (@daved)
      31st October 2014, 23:28
      
      LOL A big +1 for both of you!
3. Patrickl (@patrickl)
  1st November 2014, 12:07
  
  Mechanical issues already had a major influence on the championship. Hamilton could be 70 points ahead already if both had had perfect reliability. Instead he’s only 17 ahead now.
KeithR (@)
31st October 2014, 22:32

Paddy said that Lewis’ car had three separate, unrelated problems. A hydraulic fluid leak, I guess the gearshift and one he didn’t say what it was.
Kingshark (@kingshark)
31st October 2014, 23:59

This is going to be a total walkover. Merc’s advantage this weekend is as big as it was in Barcelona and Silverstone.
Maciek (@maciek)
1st November 2014, 9:15

I cant help but chuckle when one driver ‘pips’ another – in French slang a ‘pipe’ (sounds like pip) is ummm a certain kind of activity involving ummm, well you know the joke about whats better than one rose on a piano?