Austria – Free Practice 2: Nico Rosberg in spite of a downpour
Nico Rosberg continued his domination in a session marked by torrential rain that lasted forty minutes. Sebastian Vettel, in 4th place, crashed out, while Nico Hülkenberg set the session's third fastest time.
For this second session, the air temperature has risen to 24°C and the track temperature to 41°C. Nevertheless, large black clouds are descending from the Austrian mountains, and there is a 40% chance of rain during the session.
Under these conditions, it is not surprising that the majority of drivers rush onto the track to accumulate as many laps as possible before the potential arrival of rain. Max Verstappen, having made a mistake during the first practice session, has to wait until his mechanics finish repairing the damage to his vehicle.
After just six short minutes, Kimi Räikkönen loses the rear of his Ferrari at turn 5 and skids through the gravel trap. Two minutes later, a heavy downpour falls on the circuit. Sergio Perez reports that the first sector is drivable but not the third. Indeed, the rain arrived at the end of the circuit: the paddock was completely dry while the last section of the sector was flooded. All the cars rush to the pits.
After a forty-minute forced break, the first race cars return to the track on intermediate tires since the storm quickly passed over the circuit. However, the track is still full of water in some areas (in the last two turns) while it’s completely dry in other areas (at the top of the hill in turn 2).
The drivers thus remain on track, but the lap times are more than twelve seconds off the best benchmarks set before the downpour hit the region. McLaren’s pit wall tells Fernando Alonso he can stay on track if he wishes, but they wouldn’t learn anything more. With 25 minutes left in the session, all drivers are back in their garages, except for Sergio Perez, who takes advantage of a completely empty track. The Mexican thereby makes up for lost time after having to give up his seat to Alfonso Celis during the morning session.
20 minutes from the end, Sebastian Vettel is the first to go out on slicks (ultra softs) while Kimi Räikkönen prefers to use the super softs. Daniel Ricciardo also takes to the track but he has suffered from engine problems, starting by indicating that he didn’t have full power when he pressed the accelerator fully, before having to travel the second straight at barely 100 km/h.
In the final part of the session, the track is now completely dry, allowing drivers to approach their reference times. Thus, Lewis Hamilton, on ultra softs, gets to within 0.19 seconds of Nico Rosberg’s reference.
With two minutes remaining, Sebastian Vettel completely lost control of his car just before the second corner, ending up stranded in the gravel trap after an impressive spin. This brought the session to a close, with a period of virtual safety car.
Nico Hülkenberg is the surprise at the top of the standings, finishing 3rd, just ahead of Sebastian Vettel while Carlos Sainz (6th) finishes just ahead of Max Verstappen.
From our special correspondent in Spielberg
