Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel set the pace on Friday’s FP2 and while he later stopped with a gearbox issue, it is an interesting performance heading in to this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix.
Is there a case to be made about the short length of the Spielberg Circuit and potential for Vettel to challenge Mercedes? Could strategy and a short track play into the hands of Ferrari or even Williams?
Rosberg and the Mercedes team are wary of Ferrari’s pace and the Italian team made a power unit upgrade two weeks ago that, for reasons not entirely in their control, didn’t get a chance to show its true pace.
Pos | Driver | Car | Time | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1m09.600s | – | 28 |
2 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1m09.611s | 0.011s | 50 |
3 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1m09.860s | 0.260s | 41 |
4 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus/Mercedes | 1m09.914s | 0.314s | 44 |
5 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1m10.137s | 0.537s | 49 |
6 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India/Mercedes | 1m10.160s | 0.560s | 49 |
7 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus/Mercedes | 1m10.267s | 0.667s | 38 |
8 | Max Verstappen | Toro Rosso/Renault | 1m10.356s | 0.756s | 48 |
9 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber/Ferrari | 1m10.495s | 0.895s | 39 |
10 | Sergio Perez | Force India/Mercedes | 1m10.585s | 0.985s | 46 |
11 | Carlos Sainz | Toro Rosso/Renault | 1m10.631s | 1.031s | 50 |
12 | Daniil Kvyat | Red Bull/Renault | 1m10.686s | 1.086s | 48 |
13 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber/Ferrari | 1m10.744s | 1.144s | 40 |
14 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams/Mercedes | 1m10.746s | 1.146s | 34 |
15 | Felipe Massa | Williams/Mercedes | 1m11.011s | 1.411s | 42 |
16 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren/Honda | 1m11.517s | 1.917s | 17 |
17 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull/Renault | 1m11.676s | 2.076s | 38 |
18 | Jenson Button | McLaren/Honda | 1m11.919s | 2.319s | 17 |
19 | Will Stevens | Marussia/Ferrari | 1m12.522s | 2.922s | 34 |
20 | Roberto Merhi | Marussia/Ferrari | 1m13.094s | 3.494s | 34 |
Brilliant! Ferrari have broken the Mercedes stranglehold on F1, at last.
What? Its only FP2? Damn!