Practice report
Formula 1 British GP
British GP: Bottas leads Mercedes 1-2 in close FP2
Valtteri Bottas narrowly beat Lewis Hamilton to the fastest time in the second free practice session for the British Grand Prix, as Mercedes moved to the top of the order.
Ben Anderson
Edited: Jul 12, 2019, 6:35 PM
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Bottas set a searing pace in the early part of the session, almost eight tenths clear of Max Verstappen’s Red Bull, which was initially next fastest on the medium compound Pirelli tyre.
Hamilton was 1.225s down on Bottas on that tyre, after a run that included a brief off-track moment at high speed.
But Bottas struggled to beat his own benchmark after bolting on the softest compound. He was two tenths off after running wide at Becketts, before finally managing to shave five hundredths of a second from his previous best time to set a 1m26.732s lap that stood as the fastest of the session.
Hamilton produced a cleaner performance on the soft tyre, but was still 0.020s slower than Bottas’ medium-tyre effort in lapping second quickest.
Hamilton understeered off at the exit of Becketts on his second flying lap on softs, then aborted his third stab after clocking a time three tenths down on Bottas at the end of Hangar Straight. Bottas ultimately improved and finished the session 0.069s clear of Hamilton.
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Charles Leclerc was third-fastest in the best of the Ferraris, as the Scuderia showed improved performance relative to Red Bull on the softest tyre.
Leclerc was nine tenths down on Bottas on mediums, and slower than Pierre Gasly’s Red Bull too, but closed to within two tenths of the leading Mercedes on softs and finished the session well over two tenths clear of Ferrari teammate Sebastian Vettel.
Vettel was another driver to go off at speed early in the session, losing control at Becketts then returning to the pits.
The Ferrari driver made another attempt with medium tyres on a quiet track during the mid-session lull in action, but couldn’t get within a second of Bottas, despite displacing Hamilton on the timesheet.
Vettel’s soft tyre run was more respectable, but still almost half a second adrift of the leading Mercedes.
After topping the times in first practice, Gasly regressed to fifth in the afternoon session, over half a second down on Bottas but encouragingly within a tenth of Vettel’s Ferrari.
The McLaren-Renault of Lando Norris recovered from a wild off at Becketts to impressively split the two Red Bull-Hondas and lap sixth quickest on soft tyres, three tenths down on Gasly but 0.016s clear of Austrian GP winner Max Verstappen, whose soft tyre run was less impressive than his early effort on mediums.
Norris also led the way among the midfield runners on medium tyres earlier in the session.
His McLaren teammate Carlos Sainz was eighth, while the Toro Rosso-Honda of Alex Albon and the Racing Point-Mercedes of Sergio Perez rounded out the top 10.
After getting both cars in the top 10 in FP1, Renault endured a difficult afternoon session. Daniel Ricciardo was 14th and Nico Hulkenberg 15th quickest.
Ricciardo complained of “crazy understeer” early on, before his car mysteriously switched off at Maggotts during his long run.
British driver George Russell was slowest of all for Williams, his running severely restricted by a gearbox problem.
Session results
Cla # Driver Chassis Engine Laps Time Gap 1 77 Valtteri Bottas
Mercedes Mercedes 25 1'26.732 2 44 Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes Mercedes 35 1'26.801 0.069 3 16 Charles Leclerc
Ferrari Ferrari 30 1'26.929 0.197 4 5 Sebastian Vettel
Ferrari Ferrari 30 1'27.180 0.448 5 10 Pierre Gasly
Red Bull Honda 31 1'27.249 0.517 6 4 Lando Norris
McLaren Renault 38 1'27.546 0.814 7 33 Max Verstappen
Red Bull Honda 32 1'27.562 0.830 8 55 Carlos Sainz Jr.
McLaren Renault 39 1'27.987 1.255 9 23 Alex Albon
Toro Rosso Honda 38 1'27.997 1.265 10 11 Sergio Perez
Racing Point Mercedes 32 1'28.002 1.270 11 26 Daniil Kvyat
Toro Rosso Honda 36 1'28.008 1.276 12 20 Kevin Magnussen
Haas Ferrari 30 1'28.059 1.327 13 7 Kimi Raikkonen
Alfa Romeo Ferrari 33 1'28.126 1.394 14 3 Daniel Ricciardo
Renault Renault 17 1'28.128 1.396 15 27 Nico Hulkenberg
Renault Renault 34 1'28.217 1.485 16 18 Lance Stroll
Racing Point Mercedes 37 1'28.240 1.508 17 99 Antonio Giovinazzi
Alfa Romeo Ferrari 28 1'28.294 1.562 18 8 Romain Grosjean
Haas Ferrari 26 1'28.794 2.062 19 88 Robert Kubica
Williams Mercedes 37 1'29.935 3.203 20 63 George Russell
Williams Mercedes 11 1'30.514 3.782 View full results
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