Rosberg tops FP2 at Spa despite accident
Nico Rosberg was again the fastest at Spa as he recorded best lap time during the second free practice, despite failing to finish the session because of an accident. Lewis Hamilton was second again, while Daniel Ricciardo managed to clinch third best time one more time.
Far more exciting was the start of second free practice as many drivers had problems to control their cars. Bottas, Verstappen and Hulkenberg all went too wide, and latter one locked up and went very wide, causing yellow flags. After 30 minutes, Sebastian Vettel was on top of the standings with 1:50.940. Nico Rosberg was behind Ferrari driver with 1:51.052, while Daniel Ricciardo was third (1:51. 080).
But, Vettel was quickly removed from the first place as Rosberg recorded 1:49.385, while Marcus Ericsson jumped to second, 1.3 seconds behind Mercedes driver. Sauber was obviously well prepared for driving on soft tyres as Felipe Nasr was third for a short amount of time. Halfway into the second free practice, Rosberg was still on top, but now with Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen after him.
After a decent morning session, Rosberg looked very well during afternoon free practice. In last 30 minutes of second free practice he entered with an advantage of 0.302 seconds ahead of his teammate, while Ricciardo was 0.751 behind. But, Rosberg caused red flags when his right rear tyre exploded in one of the fastest parts of the circuit, but he luckily avoided crashing.
So, that was the end of practice for Rosberg, while the others had some 15 minutes to improve their times. But, another red flag was shown after a couple of minutes when Marcus Ericsson hit the barriers running wide at Pouhon. Only five minutes remained until the end of second free practice when the green light was lit and that wasn’t enough for any significant changes in the standings.
