Rosberg quickest as Hamilton crashes

Nico Rosberg set a blistering pace to top the times in practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The Mercedes driver took advantage of a crash for team-mate Lewis Hamilton to post the fastest time of the weekend in Practice 2.

Rosberg, who has signed a new two-year deal with the Brackley squad, clocked a 1:20.435s on the super-soft tyres to end the day on top.

Title rival Hamilton had set the pace in opening practice but was restricted to just four laps in the afternoon session.

The reigning world champion suffered a high speed spin at Turn 11 which resulted in contact with the barriers, bringing out the red flags.

The Brit managed to limp back to the pits but he failed to reappear in the session.

Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo emerged as the best of the rest just 0.5s slower than Rosberg on the super-soft tyres.

The Australian believes his pace is genuine as he targets a podium finish this weekend.

“We are looking pretty good but we would like to be a bit closer to Mercedes,” said Ricciardo.

“We are sitting second best and I think we are more or less where we expected to be. If we can keep our nose in front that would be nice.”

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was third fastest albeit almost a second shy of Rosberg on the same rubber.

The sister Red Bull of Max Verstappen was fourth ahead of Hamilton, who set his personal best on the soft compound tyres before the crash.

Kimi Raikkonen ended the day in sixth in front of the McLaren duo of Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button, who showed encouraging pace for the Woking squad.

Force India rounded out the top 10 with Nico Hulkenberg edging team-mate Sergio Perez.

Haas F1’s Esteban Gutierrez finished in 11th, while Williams struggled for speed with Felipe Massa only managing a time good enough for 12th position.

Result: Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix Practice 1

Position	Driver	Car	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:21.347s		34
2	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:21.584s	+0.237s	34
3	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:22.991s	+1.644s	22
4	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:23.082s	+1.735s	19
5	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull/Renault	1:23.174s	+1.827s	28
6	Max Verstappen	Red Bull/Renault	1:23.457s	+2.110s	27
7	Fernando Alonso	McLaren/Honda	1:23.935s	+2.588s	28
8	Jenson Button	McLaren/Honda	1:23.961s	+2.614s	18
9	Romain Grosjean	Haas/Ferrari	1:24.013s	+2.666s	22
10	Sergio Perez	Force India/Mercedes	1:24.073s	+2.726s	29
11	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India/Mercedes	1:24.120s	+2.773s	29
12	Felipe Massa	Williams/Mercedes	1:24.154s	+2.807s	27
13	Valtteri Bottas	Williams/Mercedes	1:24.370s	+3.023s	33
14	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso/Ferrari	1:24.579s	+3.232s	27
15	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber/Ferrari	1:24.981s	+3.634s	19
16	Charles Leclerc	Haas/Ferrari	1:25.181s	+3.834s	22
17	Felipe Nasr	Sauber/Ferrari	1:25.256s	+3.909s	18
18	Esteban Ocon	Renault	1:25.260s	+3.913s	28
19	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso/Ferrari	1:25.324s	+3.977s	16
20	Rio Haryanto	Manor/Mercedes	1:27.012s	+5.665s	23
21	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor/Mercedes	1:27.249s	+5.902s	9
22	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	1:28.560s	+7.213s	6

Result: Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix Practice 2

Position	Driver	Car	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:20.435s		45
2	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull/Renault	1:21.030s	+0.595s	36
3	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:21.348s	+0.913s	31
4	Max Verstappen	Red Bull/Renault	1:21.770s	+1.335s	35
5	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:21.960s	+1.525s	4
6	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:22.058s	+1.623s	46
7	Fernando Alonso	McLaren/Honda	1:22.328s	+1.893s	21
8	Jenson Button	McLaren/Honda	1:22.387s	+1.952s	34
9	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India/Mercedes	1:22.449s	+2.014s	41
10	Sergio Perez	Force India/Mercedes	1:22.653s	+2.218s	38
11	Esteban Gutierrez	Haas/Ferrari	1:22.673s	+2.238s	38
12	Felipe Massa	Williams/Mercedes	1:22.681s	+2.246s	39
13	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso/Ferrari	1:22.689s	+2.254s	24
14	Valtteri Bottas	Williams/Mercedes	1:22.773s	+2.338s	38
15	Romain Grosjean	Haas/Ferrari	1:22.864s	+2.429s	28
16	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso/Ferrari	1:22.948s	+2.513s	43
17	Kevin Magnussen	Renault	1:23.347s	+2.912s	41
18	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber/Ferrari	1:23.437s	+3.002s	36
19	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	1:23.528s	+3.093s	12
20	Felipe Nasr	Sauber/Ferrari	1:23.986s	+3.551s	31
21	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor/Mercedes	1:23.992s	+3.557s	22
22	Rio Haryanto	Manor/Mercedes	1:24.265s	+3.830s	36