Rosberg tops second practice

F1 Grand Prix, GP USA, Circuit of The Americas

Nico Rosberg was the fastest man on Friday afternoon at Austin, going round the Circuit of the Americas in 1:37.358. Daniel Ricciardo was close in second and split the Mercedes on the upper edge of the classification.

After the early runs on supersofts, drivers settled to do some longer runs, during which Ricciardo and Vettel were particularly impressive when compared to the Mercedes drivers.

Sebastian Vettel actually completed 23 laps on a set of softs, before switching to used super softs for another 12 laps. Nico Rosberg and Daniel Ricciardo focused on the soft tyres whereas Lewis Hamilton ended the session with a 19-lap stint on a set of medium tyres he used earlier on. He did complain about vibration on this set however, but still continued nonetheless.

One hour into the session, the session was halted for a short minute to remove a piece of carbon fibre that had come off of Romain Grosjean's Haas. As it laid in the middle of the track in the twisty section of Sector 1, it was impossible to be removed with cars still on the track. Esteban Gutierrez was later also seen losing parts of his car in the same high speed section.

Daniil Kvyat meanwhile caused the radio moment of the day, asking his engineer "Is he racing already or what? It's Friday!". Kvyat had seen Vettel running alongside him through several subsequent corners of the first sector, until the German Ferrari drivers eventually back out of it.