Lewis Hamilton continued Mercedes dominance at Silverstone this weekend, setting the fastest lap of the second totally free practice session for the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix, ahead of his team mate Valtteri Bottas.
The defending champion and winner of last weeks British GP set his fastest lap of 1m25.606 s on the medium tires to leapfrog Bottas just after the 60-minute mark, and Ricciardo handled P3 with 40 minutes staying when he bolted on the fastest soft tires.
Hamilton, who had completed the early morning FP1 session 2nd to Bottas, was 0.176 s quicker than the Finn, with Renaults Daniel Ricciardo an impressive 3rd fastest, 0.815 s off Hamiltons leading pace.
Vettels stoppage was the noteworthy incident from the session as he pulled over at Turn 9, his SF1000 gushing oil on the track surface area, which set off a Virtual Safety Car. Before his issue, he had just handled the 14th quickest lap, while his team mate Charles Leclerc ended up seventh general, 1.2 s off Hamilton.
Even more down the field it was another hard session for Sebastian Vettel– who missed nearly the whole of FP1 at the British Grand Prix last week with technical issues– as his Ferrari suffered an engine failure late on.
The Australians lap followed he stated on Thursday he was targeting one-lap speed to enhance Renaults certifying performance, and provide them the finest possibility possible to duplicate his P4 surface at Silverstone last weekend.
1
Lewis
Hamilton
HAM
Mercedes
1:25.606
2
+0.176 s.
Valtteri
Bottas
BOT
Mercedes
3.
Daniel.
Ricciardo.
RIC.
Renault.
+0.815 s.
4.
+0.831 s.
Max.
Verstappen.
VER.
Red Bull Racing.
5.
Lance.
Walk.
STR.
Racing Point.
Vettels session ended with an engine failure.
George Russell was again quicker than his Williams group mate Nicholas Latifi and both Alfa Romeos, ending the day 16th quickest ahead of Kimi Raikkonen and Haas Kevin Magnussen.
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In last was Antonio Giovinazzi for Alfa Romeo, whose C39 car stopped on the run off at the Maggotts-Becketts complex in the last couple of minutes of the session with what seemed an engine issue, which highlighted the warnings to end the days running.
Charles Leclerc handled 32 laps to go seventh-fastest behind Hulkenberg, with both McLaren drivers– led by Lando Norris, a tenth much faster than Carlos Sainz– in P8 and P9.
Next up for the chauffeurs is FP3, which begins at 11am local time on Saturday, before the qualifying hour at 2pm.
+0.895 s.
Ahead of the Racing Points was Red Bulls Max Verstappen, while team mate Alex Albon completed 11th behind Renaults Esteban Ocon. Renault were the only team to run the tough tyre for long durations on Friday afternoon as others focused on long runs using medium and soft tires– which are one step softer than the tyres utilized in last weeks British GP.
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The big talking point of the day was the result of Renaults protest of the Racing Point brake ducts, with the stewards revealing they had maintained the protest on Friday early morning.
AlphaTauris Daniil Kvyat finished ahead of team mate Pierre Gasly as they inhabited 12th and 13th, ahead of Vettel. Kvyat managed a session-high 33 laps and was directly slower than Red Bulls Albon.
While the group management was reacting to that news, the drivers had to get on with the job on track, and Sergio Perezs stand-in Nico Hulkenberg ended up the afternoon session P6, just over two-tenths behind fifth-place group mate Lance Stroll. The midfield fight continued to be super close, with simply half-a-second splitting sixth-place Hulkenberg and 15th-place Romain Grosjean.
