Great Britain – Free Practice 2: Rosberg dominates in the dry

For this second practice session, the drivers are eager to rack up laps after having stayed in their pits for nearly an hour during this morning’s session. The track has clearly dried since this morning, but some sections remain wet. Most drivers therefore prefer to start on intermediate tires as soon as the pit lane lights turn green.

It was Sebastian Vettel who kicked things off, followed by all the other drivers. The damage to Charles Pic’s Caterham was minor, as the Frenchman was able to start at the beginning of the session. After the first round of laps, it was Paul di Resta’s Sahara Force India that set the best time at 1:43.207 ahead of Felipe Massa’s Ferrari and Nico Hülkenberg’s Sauber.

After ten minutes, the track was deemed dry enough for the drivers to switch to slicks. Once that was done, times quickly dropped as Jean-Eric Vergne improved Paul di Resta’s time by more than a second and three-tenths to 1:41.868, then went further to 1:38.901, and finally 1:37.102. It was at this point that Nico Rosberg and the two Lotus drivers, Kimi Räikkönen and Romain Grosjean, finally set off on their first series of timed laps.

After 23 minutes of the session, Felipe Massa loses control of his car in the final corner before the main straight and crashes into the wall. Although the accident is not serious for the Brazilian driver, the right front wheel is torn off. Hence, the Scuderia driver’s session is over. However, as the car did not end up in a dangerous spot, this accident only causes a short yellow flag.

After 30 minutes of testing, it’s Mark Webber leading the session with a time of 1:34.648, ahead of the two Sahara Force India cars, Adrian Sutil’s at 1:35.150 and Paul di Resta’s also at 1:35.150. Notably, Jules Bianchi and Lewis Hamilton have yet to complete a single flying lap. This will happen in the next ten minutes.

As the track continued to dry, the drivers took full advantage to make up for the time lost during the first session of the day. As a result, lap times kept on dropping throughout the session until, around mid-session, Nico Rosberg set a time of 1:32.248, which would remain unbeaten thereafter.

In the end, Nico Rosberg finishes nearly three-tenths ahead of Mark Webber (1:32.547) and Sebastian Vettel (1:32.680). We can see that Paul di Resta is maintaining his good form from the last two races as he finishes fourth in this second session. The two Toro Rosso drivers, Daniel Ricciardo (6th) and Jean-Eric Vergne (7th), make it into the top 10. Could they be spurred by the prospect of getting the seat left vacant at Red Bull?

Finally, the rain has decided to make its return over the north-western part of the circuit, and lap times have come down to 1 minute 38, 1 minute 39, as we observed at the beginning of the session.

Free Practice 2 Results of the 2013 British Grand Prix: