US GP Friday practice

By: Geoff Creighton

Summary


	FP2 at Austin is underway, Hamilton leads after an hour of running
	Grosjean crashed to bring out a red flag after 10 minutes
	Verstappen headed FP1 for Red Bull in a close fight with Ferrari

Status: Stopped

00:40 That's all, folks. Here's our FP2 report - we'll be back at 6pm UK time on Saturday with coverage of FP3, before the start of qualifying at 9pm. Catch you then.

US Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton leads Austin Friday F1 practice

Lewis Hamilton set the pace in the second Formula 1 free practice session ahead of the United States Grand Prix, outpacing Charles Leclerc by 0.301 seconds

00:36

00:33

00:33 Replays show Stroll having a rather late lunge on one of the McLarens in the final sector. Maybe it was misjudged, but it certainly looked much closer than it needed to be!

00:32

00:30 Chequered flag. Hamilton tops of FP2 for Mercedes ahead of Leclerc and Verstappen.

00:30 Leclerc gets the upshift message again, but replies immediately, "Yeah but guys, I cannot upshift earlier, I'm already doing it."

00:28 Magnussen is seven laps into a stint on softs, but doesn't sound happy. "These tyres are really bad already, really bad."

00:27 Hamilton's times on the hard tyre look very impressive indeed. His most recent one is a 1m39.002s.

00:24 "Try to upshift before the bump [at the] exit Turn 9," Leclerc is told.

00:24 Bottas has now swapped to softs.

00:23 A few tyre changes for these final moments. Hamilton has joined Vettel in the hard tyre club, while Leclerc, Verstappen and Albon are on mediums. Bottas is still on his first set of that compound and now has 11 laps on the board.

00:21 "The front is weak, the front left I can see some graining or something," says Bottas.

00:20 We're into the final 10 minutes of the session.

00:19 Vetel has been for a spin in the final sector - looks like it was at Turn 14 - and sends up a puff of green as he goes over the grass, but it's harmless enough as he loops his Ferrari round again.

00:14 "Just be careful with track limits at Turn 19," Hamilton is told. "We've had two laps with warnings already."

00:14 Verstappen pumps in a very competitive 1m39.184s on his first lap.

00:12 We haven't had eyes on Vettel yet, but the timing screen suggests he is out on hard for this run.

00:11 Hamilton has had his past couple of lap times deleted for track limits.

00:10 The two Mercedes and Ferraris are all in the high 1m39s right now - though Vettel breaks that pattern by diving for the pits.

00:09 "I can feel a bit more deg on the rear," says Ricciardo, when asked how the balance of his Renault feels.

00:08 Verstappen and Albon are again some of the last to leave the pits, but are both on track now.

00:07 "Did you hear that?" says Russell. "Very dodgy noise from the gearbox when I launched."

00:06 Hamilton sets a 1m39.460s on his first lap of this run. The Ferraris are both slower than that to start with.

00:05

00:04 "It's getting colder out here," says Hamilton, who's just been through the pits for a practice start that should have put some heat in his tyres.

00:03 Pretty much everyone on track is on softs for these first long runs, but Mercedes has sent Bottas out on mediums.

00:01 Norris had a time deleted for track limits, but has improved from 18th to 14th on a recent run.

23:59 There's just over half an hour of the session left (those qualifying simulations were of course delayed by the red flag after Grosjean's off), so expect a pretty hectic bunch of long runs in the final half hour of the session.

23:58 And the rest: 11 Ricciardo; 12 Kvyat; 13 Hulkenberg; 14 Perez; 15 Raikkonen; 16 Magnussen; 17 Grosjean; 18 Norris; 19 Russell; 20 Kubica

23:58 Here's the order after those qualifying simulation runs: 1 Hamilton; 2 Leclerc; 3 Verstappen; 4 Vettel; 5 Bottas; 6 Albon; 7 Gasly; 8 Sainz; 9 Stroll; 10 Giovinazzi

23:54 Another impressive midfield lap, this time from Stroll - who's around a quarter of a second down on Gasly.

23:53 Verstappen, meanwhile, goes third - 0.315s down on Hamilton.

23:53 Not for long, though, as that lap gets scrubbed off for a track limits offence at Turn 19. That might be the first one of the session.

23:52 Verstappen sets a very tidy 25.287s first sector time, as Albon pops up into fifth - just over a second behind Hamilton.

23:50 Verstappen and Albon are both out now to show us what Red Bull can bring to the party.

23:49 "Where is the lap time? I don't understand," asks Bottas, presumably regarding the gap to Hamilton.

23:49 "That's a very good lap man, very good job." No, that message wasn't to Hamilton, but instead Gasly - who's more than three tenths clear of the next best midfielder right now.

23:47 In the end, the Mercedes driver ends up going fastest by 0.301s with a 1m33.232s.