Nico Rosberg took over from Lewis Hamilton on the top of the times sheets in Austin – and the Mercedes pair were separated by a Red Bull.
Rosberg set the pace in the second 90-minute session at the Circuit of the Americas. However on a track which was around 10C hotter than it had been in the morning session, Rosberg’s best effort was only seven-hundredths of a second faster than the previous benchmark.
Hamilton wasn’t able to match his lap time from the first practice session. His best effort on the super-softs was almost three-tenths slower than Rosberg, leaving him third.
The silver cars were separated by a flying Daniel Ricciardo, who went quickest of all through the twisty first sector as he got within two-tenths of a second of Rosberg.
The quickest Ferrari belonged to Sebastian Vettel and was over eight-tenths adrift. Kimi Raikkonen complained of oversteer on his first run, and with the tyres good for one lap only he fell to the foot of the top ten.
Ahead of him were both Force Indias and the McLaren pair, the latter enjoying a much more competitive showing than at Suzuka. Carlos Sainz Jnr, who ended his session with a high-speed spin at turn 18, was 11th. Jolyon Palmer also spun on his way to 17th.
The session was briefly red-flagged due to debris, a problem which occured in the first session as well and again seemed to chiefly involve the Haas cars. The brief hiatus forced Rosberg and Ricciardo to curtail their race simulation runs.
Second practice visual gaps
Nico Rosberg – 1’37.358
+0.194 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’37.552
+0.291 Lewis Hamilton – 1’37.649
+0.820 Sebastian Vettel – 1’38.178
+0.900 Max Verstappen – 1’38.258
+1.150 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’38.508
+1.210 Sergio Perez – 1’38.568
+1.443 Fernando Alonso – 1’38.801
+1.507 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’38.865
+1.613 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’38.971
+1.801 Kevin Magnussen – 1’39.159
+1.831 Felipe Nasr – 1’39.189
+1.839 Valtteri Bottas – 1’39.197
+1.844 Daniil Kvyat – 1’39.202
+1.923 Felipe Massa – 1’39.281
+2.097 Jolyon Palmer – 1’39.455
+2.196 Romain Grosjean – 1’39.554
+2.728 Esteban Ocon – 1’40.086
+2.756 Esteban Gutierrez – 1’40.114
+2.861 Marcus Ericsson – 1’40.219
+3.773 Pascal Wehrlein – 1’41.131
Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.
2016 United States Grand Prix
- Alonso beats Sainz to Driver of the Weekend win
- Virtual Safety Car blamed for US GP anti-climax
- 2016 United States Grand Prix team radio transcript
- 2016 United States Grand Prix Predictions Championship results
- Top ten pictures from the 2016 United States Grand Prix
Captain Pie (@captainpie)
21st October 2016, 21:45
Haas now feeling the pain the Honda went through last race weekend…
Not looking good for them.
On the flip side, McLaren and Force India doing well!
Crashandburn
21st October 2016, 22:12
MAG vs. PAL 3/10 dif.. who’s on top of who..? Looking forward to see the qualify…