Nico Rosberg continued to set the pace on home soil with the quickest time of second practice for this weekend’s German Grand Prix, the Mercedes driver once again finishing ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton at the Hockenheimring.

In the morning session Rosberg had eclipsed Hamilton by 0.326 in the morning session and though in the afternoon both set slightly slower best times, with Rosberg posting a 1:15.614, the German this time beat new championship leader Hamilton by almost four tenths of a second.

Sebastian Vettel claimed the third position he had also occupied earlier in the day. but whereas he had been 1.1s adrift of Rosberg in FP1 this time, in qualifying trim, the Ferrari driver took half a second out of the gap to finish 0.594 behind the top Mercedes.

However, while Vettel repeated his morning placing, Kimi Raikkonen who finished directly behind the four-time champion in the first session, this time lost out to the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo. It was a close-run thing, though with the trio separated by just 0.056s.

After finishing 15th and 16th in FP1, when they only ran the medium tyres, Force India fared better in the afternoon with Nico Hulkenberg claiming P7 on the supersoft tyres. At his home race Hulkenberg finished 0.367s and two places higher than team-mate Sergio Perez.

Eighth place in the session went to McLaren’s Jenson Button, though the Briton later had to make a trip to the medical centre, after complaining that he head been “irritated” by something in the cockpit. Tenth place in the session went to Button’s team-mate Fernando Alonso.

2016 German Grand Prix – Free Practice 2
1 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:15.614 43
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:16.008 36
3 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:16.208 39
4 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:16.456 40
5 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 1:16.490 38
6 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:16.512 45
7 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:16.781 43
8 Jenson Button McLaren 1:17.087 16
9 Sergio Perez Force India 1:17.148 44
10 Fernando Alonso McLaren 1:17.225 21
11 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso 1:17.342 32
12 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:17.367 38
13 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:17.425 44
14 Romain Grosjean Haas 1:17.602 13
15 Felipe Massa Williams 1:17.686 40
16 Esteban Gutierrez Haas 1:18.005 42
17 Kevin Magnussen Renault 1:18.056 46
18 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1:18.130 28
19 Pascal Wehrlein Manor 1:18.193 42
20 Jolyon Palmer Renault 1:18.313 47
21 Rio Haryanto Manor 1:18.591 47
22 Felipe Nasr Sauber 1:19.295 41