31/10/2014
NEWS STORY
Ahead of today's second practice session the air temperature is 22 degrees C, whilst the track temperature is 38 degrees.
Lewis Hamilton topped the timesheets in FP1, the Briton out-pacing his Mercedes teammate by 0.292s. The only competition, certainly as far as that session was concerned, was Jenson Button, who was 0.378s off Hamilton's pace, while fourth placed Daniil Kvyat was a further 0.6s behind.
The session was declared wet following an earlier shower, and while the track itself was dry, the wet Astroturf caught a number of drivers out when they strayed too far off-line.
Red Bull is having a problematic weekend from the outset, Daniel Ricciardo was side-lined for much of this morning's session with an ERS problem whilst Sebastian Vettel may give qualifying a miss after incurring a guaranteed pitlane start after his team opted to change the entire power unit on his car.
There are two DRS zones this weekend. The detection point of the first is 150 metres after Turn 10, with the activation point 320m after Turn 11, while the second zone's detection point is 65m after Turn 18, with the activation point 80m after Turn 20, on the start/finish straight.
Tyre choices are medium (prime) and soft (option).
Remember, due to the financial problems facing Caterham and Marussia, there are only 18 drivers in action this weekend. After handing over their cars to Max Verstappen and Felipe Nasr this morning, Jean-Eric Vergne and Valtteri Bottas are in action this afternoon.
The lights go green and after a short wait Bottas gets things underway, followed by Grosjean and Button.
Bottas posts 44.534, while Button and Grosjean posts 46.979 and 47.781 respectively. Elsewhere, more drivers head down the pitlane.
A number of drivers, including Raikkonen and Button complain that the wind is much stronger than in FP1.
As Button improves to 42.427, teammate Magnussen goes second with a 42.767 ahead of Vergne.
After ten minutes, as the Me4rcedes duo take to the track, the only drivers yet to make an appearance are the Red Bull pair.
"Both ends are struggling with the wind," complains Button, twice, as his engineer expresses problems hearing what he said. "And sort the radio out," adds Capt. No Grip.
Alonso splits the McLarens with a 42.595, the Spaniard, or rather his plans for 2015, the subject of much speculation this weekend.
It's business as usual as Hamilton and Rosberg post 40.493 and 41.499 respectively to go first and second. Rosberg would have gone quicker but made a mistake at T13. Elsewhere a spin for Massa at T1.
"I'm having lots of problems controlling the rear," reveals Ricciardo, referring to the strong winds. No such problems for his teammate who doesn't look likely to be going out anytime soon, it appears that the team is carrying out the much talked about power unit change.
Rosberg ups the ante with a 40.078, 0.537s ahead of his teammate. Elsewhere, Hamilton gets out of shape in T12 but does well to keep it all together.
Button posts PBs in the second and third sectors to go fourth, just behind his McLaren teammate. Nonetheless, both Woking cars are over 1.5s off Rosberg's pace.
A spin for Grosjean at T5 as the Frenchman continues to struggle with the E22. It could have been a bigger incident but for the reactions of the Frenchman. "Are you sure it's not a problem with the car," he asks.
With 52:00 remaining, Magnussen is the first driver to switch to softs (options), followed by Gutierrez, Hulkenberg and Perez. The Dane improves from 41.616 to 40.641, with Gutierrez posting 41.420, to go fifth, moments later.
Finally on track, Vettel (options), posts 44.588 to go 18th. It's understood his team has changed his gearbox also... with so many changes they should have put him in the Ferrari and had done with it.
Rosberg (options) posts 39.088, and improvement of around 0.9s. Ricciardo (options) goes second (40.390), ahead of Hamilton and Magnussen. However, now on softs, Hamilton improves with a 39.141 to second, 0.053s off his teammate's pace.
At 'half-time', it's: Rosberg, Hamilton, Ricciardo, Magnussen, Button, Hulkenberg, Massa, Vergne, Perez and Kvyat.
Another spin for a Lotus driver, this time it's Maldonado at T19.
Hamilton takes the top spot with a 39.085, the pair now split by just 0.003. Moments later Alonso goes third with a 40.189, 1.104s off Hamilton's pace.
As Raikkonen goes sixth (40.581), Vettel is back on track looking to improve on 18th. There was talk that the German might miss almost every session in an effort to save his new power unit for the race. He is certainly poodling round. The tyres are getting quite a bit worse," he complains.
With just over half-an-hour remaining, drivers are now, as ever, focussing on longer runs on high fuel.
"I'm struggling with the gearbox on downshifts, last corner," complains Rosberg. Moments later, teammate Hamilton reports a an issue with his upshift on the main straight.
"I accidentally touched the clutch button," admits Rosberg, "is it safe to continue?"
Over the course of ten laps Magnussen's times have dropped by around 2s.
As the clock counts down, everyone is on track bar Hamilton, whose car is the subject of some frenzied activity in the Mercedes garage. Indeed, "Investigations underway but looks like his #FP2 is run," tweets the German team.
"You're doing a very good job," seventh-placed Kvyat is told, "Keep going, keep going, six laps to go."
A big, long lock-up for Raikkonen in T1 as Perez is told he needs to manage the degradation of his prime tyres.
The session ends with Hamilton quickest, ahead of Rosberg, Alonso, Ricciardo, Massa, Raikkonen, Kvyat, Magnussen, Button and Hulkenberg.
Bottas is eleventh, ahead of Grosjean, Vergne, Perez, Maldonado, Sutil, Gutierrez and Vettel.
As at the end of FP1 the drivers are instructed to take part in a trial of the Virtual Safety Car, the sport's reaction to Jules Bianchi's accident which sees the drivers kept below a delta lap time during Safety Car periods.
Check out our Friday gallery, here.