German driver Nico Rosberg has been the fastest drive on track on both Friday free practice sessions of his home Grand Prix. He has been followed by his team-mate and Championship leader, Lewis Hamilton. Red Bull seems to be the second team regarding race pace, although Ferrari will be close for qualifying.

Mercedes has clearly dominated Friday’s two sessions, making clear they have a brilliant car both for qualifying and race. The Red Bulls and Ferraris are a step under them. Vettel and Räikkönen have made good laps when practising for qualifying, but they have been outpaced by Verstappen and Ricciardo in the long stints.

Something similar happens with Force India and McLaren. Hulkenberg and Pérez can compete for the fourth row with Alonso and Button, but the two former World Champions have shown a better race pace. Behind them, Toro Rosso have not shown all their potential, so they may probably be fighting for the point on Sunday. Both McLaren and Toro Rosso, however, have been the slowest cars in the speed trap, which can be a problem for the race.

Both sessions have been quite clean, with most of the drivers going off-track in certain corners but without any crash. Race Direction has pointed out that they will be severe with those drivers who drive continuously out of track. This will be an important issue to analyse during the next two days of GP.

These are the results of the second free practice in Hockenheim:

Pos.

Car

Driver

 

Team

Time

Gap

1

6

Nico Rosberg GER Mercedes

1,15,614

2

44

Lewis Hamilton GBR Mercedes

1:16,008

+ 0,394

3

5

Sebastian Vettel GER Ferrari

1:16,208

+ 0,594

4

33

Max Verstappen NED Red Bull Racing Tag Heuer

1:16,456

+ 0,842

5

3

Daniel Ricciardo AUS Red Bull Racing Tag Heuer

1:16,490

+ 0,876

6

7

Kimi Räikkönen FIN Ferrari

1:16,512

+ 0,898

7

27

Nico Hulkenberg GER Force India Mercedes

1:16,781

+ 1,167

8

22

Jenson Button GBR Mclaren Honda

1:17,087

+ 1,473

9

11

Sergio Perez MEX Force India Mercedes

1:17,148

+ 1,534

10

14

Fernando Alonso ESP Mclaren Honda

1:17,225

+ 1,611

11

55

Carlos Sainz ESP Toro Rosso Ferrari

1:17,342

+ 1,728

12

26

Daniil Kvyat RUS Toro Rosso Ferrari

1:17,367

+ 1,753

13

77

Valtteri Bottas FIN Williams Mercedes

1:17,425

+ 1,811

14

8

Romain Grosjean FRA Haas Ferrari

1:17,602

+ 1,988

15

19

Felipe Massa BRA Williams Mercedes

1:17,686

+ 2,072

16

21

Esteban Gutierrez MEX Haas Ferrari

1:18,005

+ 2,391

17

20

Kevin Magnussen DAN Renault

1:18,056

+ 2,442

18

9

Marcus Ericsson SWE Sauber Ferrari

1:18,130

+ 2,516

19

94

Pascal Wehrlein GER MRT Mercedes

1:18,193

+ 2,579

20

30

Jolyon Palmer GBR Renault

1:18,313

+ 2,699

21

88

Rio Haryanto INA MRT Mercedes

1:18,591

+ 2,977

22

12

Felipe Nasr BRA Sauber Ferrari

1:19,295

+ 3,681