While Mercedes retain their usual edge in terms of one-lap performance Red Bull drew encouragement from their long-run pace at the Hockenheimring.
“We looked quite close to the Mercedes on high fuel so that was promising,” said Daniel Ricciardo after today’s practice sessions. “This afternoon’s race stint looked really good so if we can replicate what we did then on Sunday I think we can have a strong chance in the race.”
Ricciardo’s pace dropped by just two-tenths of a second over a 13-lap stint in the second practice session, better than either of the Mercedes drivers managed. But Red Bull’s ability to take on the silver cars could be hindered by the superior one-lap pace of the Ferraris, both of which have been quicker than them so far.
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While Nico Rosberg led the way at Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton was taking extra care with track limits to avoid the risk of incurring a reprimand. If he incurs a third he will receive a ten-place grid penalty.
Williams are wary of the threat posed by Force India this weekend, who have taken the unusual step of bringing more medium compound tyres than anyone else. While the quickest pit stop strategy is expected to involve one stint on super-softs followed by two on softs, could Force India be hoping to make a one-stop strategy work?
“I think we were the only team to run the medium compound today alongside the soft and super-soft, which allowed us to get a lot of data about each of the three different tyres,” said Sergio Perez. “The mediums are performing quite well, which is a bit of a welcome surprise.”
There was also finally some positive news for Sauber, as the revised rear wing introduced at Silverstone is now working as intended. “We tried the new rear wing again in FP1, and finally see the numbers we want to,” Marcus Ericsson confirmed.
“We will continue with our in-depth analysis, but it seems to be a step forward. We also plan to keep this rear wing for the rest of this weekend, which is a positive sign.”
Longest stint comparison – second practice
This chart shows all the drivers’ lap times (in seconds) during their longest unbroken stint. Very slow laps omitted. Scroll to zoom, drag to pan, right-click to reset:
Complete practice times
| Pos | Driver | Car | FP1 | FP2 | Total laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1’15.517 | 1’15.614 | 75 |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’15.843 | 1’16.008 | 66 |
| 3 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1’16.667 | 1’16.208 | 68 |
| 4 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’16.927 | 1’16.456 | 69 |
| 5 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’17.089 | 1’16.490 | 68 |
| 6 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1’16.852 | 1’16.512 | 68 |
| 7 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 1’18.591 | 1’16.781 | 78 |
| 8 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Honda | 1’17.612 | 1’17.087 | 31 |
| 9 | Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 1’18.628 | 1’17.148 | 73 |
| 10 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren-Honda | 1’17.183 | 1’17.225 | 39 |
| 11 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’18.044 | 1’17.342 | 54 |
| 12 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’18.008 | 1’17.367 | 62 |
| 13 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Mercedes | 1’18.210 | 1’17.425 | 81 |
| 14 | Romain Grosjean | Haas-Ferrari | 1’18.589 | 1’17.602 | 33 |
| 15 | Felipe Massa | Williams-Mercedes | 1’18.322 | 1’17.686 | 73 |
| 16 | Esteban Gutierrez | Haas-Ferrari | 1’18.005 | 42 | |
| 17 | Kevin Magnussen | Renault | 1’18.933 | 1’18.056 | 81 |
| 18 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’18.198 | 1’18.130 | 56 |
| 19 | Pascal Wehrlein | Manor-Mercedes | 1’19.975 | 1’18.193 | 75 |
| 20 | Jolyon Palmer | Renault | 1’18.313 | 47 | |
| 21 | Rio Haryanto | Manor-Mercedes | 1’19.167 | 1’18.591 | 81 |
| 22 | Charles Leclerc | Haas-Ferrari | 1’18.882 | 32 | |
| 23 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’18.961 | 1’19.295 | 63 |
| 24 | Esteban Ocon | Renault | 1’18.981 | 30 |
2016 German Grand Prix
- Ricciardo grabs third Driver of the Weekend win of 2016
- F1 went into the summer break on a low
- 2016 German Grand Prix team radio transcript
- Top ten pictures from the 2016 German Grand Prix
- 2016 German Grand Prix Predictions Championship results
banana88x (@banana88x)
29th July 2016, 18:05
Keep an eye on the Force Indias!
Raveen dhana
30th July 2016, 7:08
Force India have brought more mediums than anyone, Perez said till now the mediums seem to perform well let’s see
WheelToWheel (@lolzerbob)
29th July 2016, 18:10
https://t.co/WnbVZ8JRp5
For the silly season, Perez in talks with Renault and Williams while Ocon set to join for 2017 and Manor 2016 seat
Raveen dhana
30th July 2016, 7:06
Perez brings a lot of money, will be interesting what effect he might bring to force India if he leaves. Most probably he will leave. Heard is not happy with Vijay for him announcing that Perez is staying with team fi
Patrick (@paeschli)
30th July 2016, 7:15
Source?
I got the impression that both Perez and Hulkenberg love the spirit at FI. They are both against a well regarded team mate, have consistently the ‘best of the rest’ car and have to opportunity to score podiums from time to time.
Joining Williams or Renault just might be a step backwards in the short run.
Raveen dhana
30th July 2016, 7:29
Autosport http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/125489
And I read somewhere that Renault f1 is vying for Sergio Perez, with this Perez Has still not confirmed himself with Vijay cofirming perez. So feel something is brewing.
Raveen dhana
30th July 2016, 7:32
And there are other websites saying the same, the thing is Perez is still non commital.
Martin
29th July 2016, 19:54
“There was a little bit of stress this afternoon with race direction concerning track limits at [turn one],” admitted Paddy Lowe, “particularly concerning Lewis’ position with two reprimands already to his name – so we compromised our programme somewhat to ensure that he avoided a third”.
So can we expect Lewis to go out and deliberately get a third reprimand the weekend he finally takes his engine penalty? Just to get everything out of the way in one go?
Markp
29th July 2016, 23:36
A reprimand for running wide in free practice exams using stupid. I thought reprimands were for dangerous issues? If you run wide in quali your lap is deleted, 4 times in a race a penalty which is great but running wide in practice where you are practising for the limits in quali and the race then to get a reprimand is really stupid, or is it just me that thinks this?
@HoHum (@hohum)
30th July 2016, 4:32
No, not just you.
x303 (@x303)
30th July 2016, 11:00
No, I feel the same: a reprimand for running wide in practice is unnecessary @hohum.
x303 (@x303)
30th July 2016, 11:01
oops, sorry, I misread your comment @hohum.
Mark G (@)
30th July 2016, 8:17
Martin, that was my immediate thought too.
In Spa where he’ll be starting from the back anyway, he could quite easily pick up a reprimand for a number of non-dangerous things. If Mercedes are thinking about it strategically (and it looks like they are) then I wouldn’t be surprised to see him pick it up during FP1 there before they announce he’ll be taking on 2 new power units.
Steven (@steevkay)
29th July 2016, 22:44
Do track limits really matter during free practice? I’m all for enforcing these rules during race/qualifying but I don’t understand why it even matters during practice.
Atticus (@atticus-2)
29th July 2016, 23:10
@steevkay Completely agree.
Atticus (@atticus-2)
29th July 2016, 23:09
Really don’t want to play the devil’s advocate here, especially not for Hamilton as I simply hate the championship being a no-contest, but why not say ‘oops’ and incur that third reprimand ‘somehow’ during the Belgian GP weekend where he’ll most likely start last anyway…
Talking about maximising things…