Mercedes ahead in FP2 as Ferrari edges closer

F1 Grand Prix, GP Australia, Albert Park

Nico Rosberg topped the times in the second practice session at Melbourne, just like he did in FP1, ahead of team mate Lewis Hamilton. The Mercedes duo however saw Ferrari edge closer, reducing their advantage to 7 tenths.

With Vettel third fastest, Raikkonen slotted into 4th, approximately 4 tenths off of his 4 time World Champion team mate.

Bottas went 5th fastest while Kvyat held the honours up for Red Bull Racing as Daniel Ricciardo was unable to set a time after an already difficult first practice session as well. It turned out his Renault engine had to be changed, and the team was unable to get this done in time for the local hero to get on track.

Felipe Massa also didn't make it out on track as repairs on his Williams were ongoing to fix a water leak discovered at the end of FP1. Also, Manor did get out on track with continuing software issues.

At Sauber, both Ericsson and Nasr went out while legal problems continued in the background. Nasr enjoyed a trouble free session while Ericsson broke the rear suspension on his car due to hard contact with the kerbs at turn 15.

Finally of note was Kevin Magnussen who must not have enjoyed his debut with the McLaren Honda. Just 4 laps into the session, he crashed out after getting the approach of turn 6 wrong. The result was a damage left front on the car, triggering a 7 minute stoppage of the session until the car was recovered.