Rosberg tops second session as Hamilton spins off

F1 Grand Prix, GP Hungary, Hungaroring

The tables at Mercedes turned this afternoon, with Nico Rosberg edging ahead of the pack and his team mate. While Ricciardo and Vettel became the closest challengers to the German, Lewis Hamilton spun off on a quick lap, ending his session after just 4 laps.

Hamilton just edged Rosberg on the soft Pirelli tyres in their early runs, when just a thousandth of a second separated them. Soon though, Hamilton spun off, losing grip on the rear when braking for turn 11. He was on the left kerb under braking to optimise his racing line, but lost the rear, and slid sideways into the tyre barriers. The hit was relatively soft, with no harm done to Hamilton himself. There was also little to no visible damage on the car, but Mercedes had no choice to keep the car in the garage for the remainder of the session to check if everything was ok.

This obviously dropped Hamilton down the pecking order as drivers went on to the super soft tyres. Rosberg initially improved down to 1:20.435, following which Vettel got onto the super softs to take second place. This was further improved by Ricciardo when the Red Bull driver also changed to super softs, lapping within 6 tenths of Rosberg. Verstappen meanwhile confirmed Red Bull's expected form by taking 4th, just ahead of Hamilton's lap on the softs.

Raikkonen was 6th fastest, followed by Alonso and Button, who just like in FP1 positioned themselves in 7th and 8th. The Force India drivers completed the top 10, with Hulkenberg 2 tenths quicker than his team mate.