Hamilton quickest despite mechanical issues

Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time in Friday free practice despite suffering from mechanical problems with his Mercedes.

Mercedes dominated proceedings with Hamilton setting the day’s quickest time in morning practice, while team-mate Nico Rosberg topped the second 90 minute session.

Hamilton’s Mercedes joined the final session of the day late when his team encountered an electronic issue which prevented his car from starting.

Despite losing an hour of track time, Hamilton rejoined the fray to finish just 0.061s adrift on Rosberg in FP2.

Rosberg was unable to beat the 1.26.187s time set by Hamilton in the morning session.

Ferrari impressed in front of their home crowd with Kimi Raikkonen setting the third fastest time overall. The Finn, who returned to form at Spa two weeks ago, was just 0.106s adrift of Rosberg.

Fernando Alonso confirmed Ferrari’s pace by ending the day in fourth just two tenths further back.

Williams’ Valtteri Bottas was fifth fastest just fourth thousandths ahead of McLaren’s Jenson Button. The Brit started free practice strongly by finishing the opening session in second behind Hamilton.

Sebastian Vettel proved to be be the top Red Bull runner in seventh, while his Belgian Grand Prix winning team-mate Daniel Ricciardo was plagued by powerplant issues.

The Australian, who banked just 12 laps in FP1, managed to round out the top 10 in the final practice session.

DTM driver Roberto Mehri made his grand prix weekend debut as he deputised for Caterham’s Kamui Kobayashi in morning practice.

The 23-year-old eclipsed his more experienced team-mate Marcus Ericsson by two tenths of a second.

A handful of teams elected to field test drivers in the session with Daniel Juncadella replacing Sergio Perez at Force India.

Charles Pic stood in for Romain Grosjean at Lotus while Giedo van der Garde took over Adrian Sutil’s Sauber.

Free Practice 2 Results

Free Practice 1 Results