As soon as the afternoon session, the second-to-last before qualifying, began, Sebastian Vettel headed out to the track, setting the tone of the second Friday practice in Spielberg. The German, who endured gearbox issues that kept him in the garage for the whole first session, made up for the lost time, immediately taking to the track in this second session.
After the first 10-minutes, a number of drivers had already set their first flying laps, with Raikkonen leading the way. Having clocked a lap around 1:11, he was closely stalked by the Mercedes duo of Hamilton and Rosberg who were both ahead of him as the three occupied the top-three spots in Practice 1 Friday morning.
It did not took long, however, for the Silver Arrows to impose their dominance, as Hamilton set a 1:10.137 before the session reached its 20-minute mark.
On super-soft compound tires, Raikkonen became the first to clock a lap under 1:10, with a 1:09.860. Also on the softest compound, Rosberg leaped to first with a 1:09.611, before his Ferrari compatriot, Sebastian Vettel, set a 1:09.600, 43-minutes into the session. Vettel’s time would be the fastest of the day.
As the session progressed, more and more drivers ditched the fast laps in order to improve their pace on Sunday.
With less than half an hour to go, Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was spared from mechanical issues as his team called him back to the pit road due to gearbox problems, the same issu that kept him out of the first morning practice.
As the final minutes of the last Friday session approached, almost everyone was out on the track testing race setups. Williams’ Felipe Massa and Lotus’ Romain Grosjean, both on super-softs, were lapping around 1:12, with their best times were within the 1:10 mark.
Entering the final 15-minutes, positions remained unaltered, with Vettel atop the sheets, followed by Rosberg, Raikkonen, Maldonado and Hamilton. Nico Hülkenberg, fresh out of a Le Mans overall win last week, was the sixth quickest as the clock ran out.
The second round of work at the Red Bull Ring highlighted the progress made by Ferrari in regard of their engines. The Maranello squad updated its power units, providing to Sauber, their best client, an updated version of the V6 hybrid motor. At the speed trap, Mercedes was still the fastest with Rosberg’s 323.1 km/h, but Ferrari had the second, third and fourth best marks, with Vettel (322), Nasr (321.9) and Ericsson (321.2).
As the clock expired, Vettel retained his position in the charts. He finished the session with the same 1:09.600 set before the practice reached its halfway mark.
Rosberg was the second fastest, only 0.011 off the time of the four-time world champion. Kimi Raikkonen put the Ferrari No. 7 in the third position with a 1:09.860, while Pastor Maldonado on the Lotus-Mercedes was the fourth quickest and last driver among those who lapped under 1:10, with a 1:09.914.
Reigning World Champion Lewis Hamilton was fifth fastest with a 1:10.137. Red Bull, at their home track, had Daniil Kvyat’s 12th best time as their best result. Daniel Ricciardo finished 17th quickest, ahead only of Jenson Button and the Manor Marussia duo.
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Pete Liguori is the lead Formula 1 writer at the VAVEL USA Racing section. Follow him on Twitter at @PeteUSSports.
