Austrian F1 Grand Prix 2016 Qualifying: Results, Times from Friday's Practice

Formula One championship leader Nico Rosberg edged out his Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton to top the standings again in a rain-soaked second practice session on Friday at the 2016 Austrian Grand Prix. 

The Englishman was just one hundredth of a second back from the German as Force India's Nico Hulkenberg finished an excellent third at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg.

In the morning, Rosberg headed Hamilton by four tenths of a second in an entertaining session full of incident as grip and new kerbs caused problems for a number of drivers.

The Ferraris of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen sat behind the Mercedes in third and fourth, respectively, while Red Bull's Max Verstappen had problems throughout the session and finished eighth fastest.

FP2 Recap

Here are the full results from the second practice session, via Formula One:

With rain imminent, most of the drivers headed for a quick run at the start of the session, and Kimi Raikkonen spun at Turn 5 moments before the heavens opened.

There was a unanimous move to the pits, but a couple of drivers were caught in the worst of the weather, per Formula One:

The rain set in for some time, but once it eased off, the drivers returned to the track. It gave them a good opportunity to test a range of tyres and get a feel for the drying track in case there is wet weather during the race on Sunday.

Intermediate tyres were the order of the day initially as the track got gradually drier, and soon the ultrasoft tyres were a viable option.

With Rosberg heading the timesheets, Hamilton got to within one hundredth of a second as he put in a smart lap 10 minutes from the end of the session.

Having lost a lot of time because of the rain, it was a busy end to the session on track as the drivers looked to get in some decent running.

The session was effectively called to a premature end in terms of meaningful times as Vettel drew a yellow flag after spinning into the gravel at Turn 2.

FP1 Recap

Here are the full results from the opening practice session, via Formula One:

Early expectations for the first session in Austria were that Vettel would test the new halo safety technology, but engineers were working on his car as the action got going, per racing driver and commentator Karun Chandhok:

The German eventually made it out on track—minus the halo—but not before he had been handed a five-place grid penalty for a gear-box change, per BBC Sport.

Hamilton set the early pace before being pipped by Rosberg. The Englishman then locked up and spun, forcing Romain Grosjean—trailing shortly behind him—to do the same as he tried to avoid the reigning world champion.

Charles Coates/Getty Images

Verstappen then had some grip problems and went wide at Turn 8, losing his end plate, before his team-mate Daniel Ricciardo was forced to take evasive action and go up onto the kerb as Sauber's Marcus Ericsson was careless going into the pits.

Grip was proving an issue for many of the drivers on Friday morning, and Rosberg ended up in the gravel at Turn 3 after locking up.

He got away with no issues, but Verstappen had problems when he was beached in the gravel moments later.

The 18-year-old Dutchman went wide at Turn 5 and over the new yellow kerbs, which caused his front suspension to snap and force him into the gravel at Turn 6, ending his session.

He was not happy, per Channel 4 F1:

The kerbs were an obvious issue for drivers and caused Manor's Rio Haryanto to spin just moments after being told by his team "not to use the yellow kerbs," per BBC Sport.

Formula One provided an instructive image:

There continued to be grip issues until the end of the session, but Rosberg remained top of the standings.