BRITISH GP – Max Verstappen two hundredths faster than Carlos Sainz in second practice
Max Verstappen was fastest in second practice ahead of the British Grand Prix, the Reb Bull driver was two hundredths faster than the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz. The Dutchman set a 28.078 on the mediums putting him ahead by one of the smallest margins this season.
His race-simulation run was more than half a second a lap on average quicker on the same soft tyre than Perez, with Sainz a little further behind. Red Bull have won each of the first nine races of the season, and are looking for an eleventh successive victory, stretching back to last year, that would draw them level with the record McLaren set in 1988.
While Sainz was close his teammate Charles Leclerc was unable to take part as Ferrari detected an electrical issue on his car ahead of FP2 and had been working on during the session’s early stages, but this did not lead to a fix that meant Leclerc was able to enter the running.
Alex Albon was best of the Brits going third two tenths off Verstappen, Williams having a surprise upturn in form. He used the soft to surprise team principal James Vowels. Albon was half a second faster than the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez, as the Mexican spilt the Williams with Logan Sargeant fifth, four tenths behind.
This should have been Williams eight hundredth Grand Prix, but the late cancellation of Imola in May pushes it to Budapest in a fortnights time. A decent up turn in form thanks as upgrade introduced this weekend, however his fellow Brits struggled. Although they did show progress since Montreal three weeks ago, the team has over-achieved Albon unlikely to repeat that in qualifying.
The Mercedes duo George Russell twelfth and Lewis Hamilton fifteenth, Lando Norris splitting them in fourteenth. Although Mercedes looked to struggle on single lap pace, as often has been the case this season the long runs looked strong roughly matching Perez. Not what the wanted following the upgrades in Austria.
Mercedes, their lack of pace over one lap suggested that reaching the final part of qualifying on Saturday is far from a certainty, but there was some solace to be taken from more encouraging long-run performance.
Lance Stroll was sixth going a tenth behind Sargeant, Aston Martin looking perhaps at this early stage to be slipping away a bit ahead of their home race. However the Canadian’s qualifying simulation run was interrupted by having to pit so his left-side wing mirror could be worked on, the part having worked loose as the Canadian traversed the Silverstone layout on the softs.
Things got worst for Stroll, he suffered a puncher, also being hit by a stone on one of his fingers, which left him “[hurt] pretty bad” but vowing to “keep going”, which he did.
Friday’s sessions saw the debut of updated tyre compounds provided by Pirelli, with the manufacturer making the changes to ensure safety amid higher-than-expected increases in downforce attained by teams during the opening months of the season. That could explain so of the surprise result.
Nico Hulkenberg put his Haas seventh, the German going a hundredth faster than Pierre Gasly. The Banbury based American team having a better FP2 after using the lunchtime session as a test session with a new front suspension and beam wing.
Oscar Piastri used his upgraded McLaren to go ninth, just over a tenth faster than Fernando Alonso. Guanyu Zhou was eleventh going just over a tenth faster than Russell. The midfield has been tight all season, eighth to twentieth covered by six tenths. Esteban Ocon putting his Alpine four thousandths behind the Mercedes of Russell.
Lando Norris was fourteenth going two hundredth faster than Hamilton, the Mercedes driver aborted his soft run when the tyres were freshest. That meant his fastest time was nearly half a tenth off teammate Russell, and over a second off Verstappen.
Valtteri Bottas was sixteenth ahead of Kevin Magnussen and Yuki Tsunoda. The Alpha Tauri’s rounded Nyck De Vries however his session ended dramatically through Village before stopping at The Loop on his long run.