Lewis Hamilton moved ahead of Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg during Friday afternoon’s second practice session for the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim, delivering a 1:18.341 on Pirelli’s Super Soft tyre to hold a slender advantage of 0.024 seconds. Daniel Ricciardo finished third fastest for Red Bull.

Amid sweltering temperatures – air peaking at 33°C and track at 58°C – the championship rivals continued where they had left off in the opening session, swapping places at the front on numerous occasions.

Rosberg initially held the top spot after the Soft tyre runs, but Hamilton jumped clear when the switch to the Super Soft rubber arrived.

The final Friday practice gap stood at two hundredths, less than half the difference in the opening session.

Ricciardo was this time the best of the rest, the Australian only a tenth down on pace-setter Hamilton.

Kimi Räikkönen, who suffered no further gremlins after his morning trouble, was next up for Ferrari, ahead of McLaren rookie Kevin Magnussen, Williams driver Felipe Massa and the second MP4-29 of Jenson Button.

Sebastian Vettel, who looked unhappy with the balance of his car throughout the second 90-minute session, finished eighth, while Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and Williams’ Valtteri Bottas rounded out the top 10.

Sauber’s Adrian Sutil ended an encouraging first day in 11th position, just in front of the Toro Rosso and Force India pairings – Daniil Kvyat and Jean-Éric Vergne sandwiching Sergio Pérez and Nico Hülkenberg.

Lotus again featured towards the back, with Pastor Maldonado and Romain Grosjean two seconds adrift.

Esteban Gutiérrez, who along with Bottas missed the opening session, experienced a slow start in 18th.

At the very back of the field, Jules Bianchi put Marussia over half a second ahead of Caterham, whose drivers endured a challenging afternoon; rookie Marcus Ericsson lost a chunk of track time after grounding to a halt early on, while Kamui Kobayashi’s afternoon came to a dramatic end when his car caught fire half an hour in.