German GP, ​​Free Practice 2: Maldonado at the top ahead of Rosberg, accident for Schumi

After light rain in the morning, a heavy downpour ruined the second free practice session at the German GP. With the track flooded, Pastor Maldonado excelled in the Williams.

The Venezuelan from Williams took advantage of the intermediate tires when the bad weather gave a respite and lapped the Hockenheim track in 1'27"476, just 88 thousandths ahead of a home idol, Nico Rosberg in the Mercedes. Third place, but further behind, for another German: Sebastian Vettel brings his Red Bull to 426 thousandths of a second from the top, exactly half a second better than Sergio Perez in the Sauber, the real surprise of the day. Fifth place for Romain Grosjean with Lotus, 18 thousandths behind the Mexican; Nico Hulkenberg confirms himself sixth with Force India at just over 1", while Daniel Ricciardo with Toro Rosso precedes Jenson Button with McLaren by three thousandths, while the Top 10 is completed by Mark Webber's Red Bull (9th at 1 ”4 from Maldonado) and Kimi Raikkonen: his Lotus finished 1”8 from the top of the times.

The other big names are behind, for various reasons: Felipe Massa is 12th with the Ferrari, 2 seconds away, while Lewis Hamilton with the McLaren precedes Fernando Alonso in 2th place with the other Ferrari: for them a delay of 19 seconds. and 3”1 from Williams. Michael Schumacher, on the other hand, finished with the 3rd time, but for the Mercedes driver there was a bad accident at the end: the German lost control of his W7 in the Motordrom and hit the rear end against the barriers, also ruining the front . The race direction displayed the red flag and the free practice session was closed early, but there were no physical consequences for the former Ferrari driver. He wasn't the only driver to fall victim to the rain: Ricciardo was also forced to stop his Toro Rosso in the gravel, shortly before Schumi's accident. Free practice will continue tomorrow morning, with FP23, before qualifying scheduled for the early afternoon.

Lorena Bianchi

Here are the FP2 times:

Pos Driver Team Time Lap Gap 1. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1m27.476 14 2. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m27.564s + 0,088 24 3. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m27.902s + 0,426 24 4. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m28.402 .0,926S + 26 5 1. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 28.420m0,944s + 20 6 1. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Vercedes 28.495m1,019s + 22 7 1. Daniel Ricciaro Rosso-Ferrari 28.513m1,037s + 23 8 1. Jenson Button. McLaren-Mercedes 28.516m1,040s + 16 9 1. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 28.877m1,401s + 21 10 1. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 29.327m1,851s + 22 11 1. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 29.364m1,888s + 26 12 1. Felipe Massa Ferrari 29.719m2,243s + 15 13 1. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 29.785m2,309s + 24 14 1. Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 30.090m2,614s + 19 15 1. Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 30.220m2,744 16s+ 16 1 30.291. Bruno Senna Williams-Renault 2,815m22s + 17 1 30.331. Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 2,855m26s + 18 1 30.437. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 2,961m14s + 19 1 30.617. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes des 3,141m16s + 20 1 31.207. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 3,731m20s + 21 1 32.241. Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 4,765m22s + 22 1 32.349. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 4,873m17s + 23 1 32.777. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 5,301m18. 24s + 1 42.566 15,090. Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 8mXNUMXs + XNUMX XNUMX