Nico Rosberg has continued Mercedes good form during practice for the Malaysian Grand Prix by finishing the second session quickest on Friday afternoon at Sepang.
The German driver followed the example set by teammate Lewis Hamilton – who topped the opening session earlier today – to finish fastest of all with a best lap of 1:39.909, edging out Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen by just 0.035 seconds.
Following a difficult start to the season in Australia last weekend, Ferrari finally appears to have found some pace as Raikkonen was joined at the head of the field by Fernando Alonso, who finished in fifth place but was less than two-tenths of a second behind Rosberg’s time. Furthermore, the long-run pace of the F14 T was also encouraging.
However, the Ferrari drivers weren’t alone at the sharp end of the field, as the top seven drivers were covered by less than four-tenths of a second, suggesting that we could be in for a tight tussle for pole position tomorrow in qualifying.
Sebastian Vettel banished his demons from last weekend to finally find some form and finish the session in third place, whilst teammate Daniel Ricciardo rounded out the top seven. Hamilton was unable to repeat his form from FP1, but he did finish in a very respectable fourth place. Felipe Massa ran well for Williams to finish sixth.
Pastor Maldonado’s day failed to improve though as the Lotus driver did not complete a single lap, with the problem that he suffered during FP1 still having an adverse effect on his car.
The drivers and teams will now take this data away from the track and prepare for the third and final practice session tomorrow. This will act as their final chance to get their cars set up ahead of qualifying for the Malaysian Grand Prix, which is live on NBCSN and Live Extra from 4am ET.
