BAKU, Azerbaijan -- Lewis Hamilton dominated second practice for the Grand Prix of Europe in Baku, clocking a time 0.690s faster than nearest rival Nico Rosberg.
The new Baku street circuit continued to provide a challenge -- with regular visits to the run-off areas at Turns 1 and 3 -- but Hamilton was able to hook up a quick lap on new super-softs during a seven-lap run. Mercedes was comfortably quickest, with Force India's Sergio Perez 1.113s off Hamilton's pace in third place, but suffered a reliability issue with 20 minutes remaining when Rosberg pulled to the side of the track with a loss of power. The problem was being looked in to at the end of the session, but Rosberg is well within his limit of power unit components this season and therefore will not take a grid drop if new parts are needed.
The Ferraris, which are expected to be Mercedes' closest rivals in Baku, were on 10 lap runs when they set their fastest times on new super-softs, but three extra laps of fuel would not come close to accounting for Sebastian Vettel's 1.996s gap to Hamilton. Kimi Raikkonen was even further off the pace, with a gap of 2.471s to the Hamilton's best time. The Finn's session came to an early end when his rear tyres locked at Turn 5 and he came to a halt in the run-off area. Vettel was later told to slow down and return to the pits, with a subsequent radio message suggesting the problem was MGU-K related and the same as Raikkonen's.
Red Bull was marginally closer with a 1.845s gap between Hamilton and Max Verstappen, while Daniel Ricciardo was 2.070s off after his car was rebuilt following a clash with the barriers in FP1. Nobody had as big a crash in the second session, but Esteban Gutierrez became the first driver to clip the barrier at the incredibly tight sequence of corners around the old city walls, clipping the inside at Turn 9.
In the place of the usual challengers to Mercedes, Force India and Williams looked quick, with Perez third, Valtteri Bottas fourth and Nico Hulkenberg fifth. Carlos Sainz managed to sneak into the top six in the Toro Rosso ahead of ex-teammate Verstappen in seventh. Jenson Button kept McLaren in the top ten with a time 2.011s off Hamilton's best.
Fernando Alonso finished just two tenths behind his McLaren teammate, with Haas drivers Romain Grosjean and Esteban Gutierrez either side of 13th place Raikkonen below. Felipe Massa was unable to replicate teammate Bottas' pace down in 16th, finishing ahead of Renault's Kevin Magnussen.
Rio Haryanto turned in an impressive performance to finish 18th, ahead of teammate Pascal Wehrlein, both Sauber drivers and Renault's Jolyon Palmer.
Ahead of the start of the session there had been concerns about loose kerbing damaging tyres, but some extra welding between FP1 and FP2 appeared to solve the issue. The very last piece of kerbing still appeared to be loose as the session restarted, but the FIA was satisfied that a simple warning to the drivers was enough to allow the session to continue.