Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

British Grand Prix: Bottas heads Mercedes one-two in Silverstone FP2

Valtteri Bottas narrowly beat Formula 1 team-mate Lewis Hamilton to the fastest time in second practice for the British Grand Prix, as Mercedes moved to the top of the order

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 1.225 seconds down on Bottas on that tyre, after a run that included a brief off-track moment at high speed.

Bottas then 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's 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 finished the session 0.069s clear of Hamilton.

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 team-mate 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 could not 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 team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr 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.

FP2 times

Pos Driver Car Time Gap Laps
1 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1m26.732s - 25
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m26.801s 0.069s 35
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1m26.929s 0.197s 30
4 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1m27.180s 0.448s 30
5 Pierre Gasly Red Bull/Honda 1m27.249s 0.517s 31
6 Lando Norris McLaren/Renault 1m27.546s 0.814s 38
7 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda 1m27.562s 0.830s 32
8 Carlos Sainz Jr. McLaren/Renault 1m27.987s 1.255s 39
9 Alexander Albon Toro Rosso/Honda 1m27.997s 1.265s 38
10 Sergio Perez Racing Point/Mercedes 1m28.002s 1.270s 32
11 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso/Honda 1m28.008s 1.276s 36
12 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 1m28.059s 1.327s 30
13 Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 1m28.126s 1.394s 33
14 Daniel Ricciardo Renault 1m28.128s 1.396s 17
15 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1m28.217s 1.485s 34
16 Lance Stroll Racing Point/Mercedes 1m28.240s 1.508s 37
17 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 1m28.294s 1.562s 28
18 Romain Grosjean Haas/Ferrari 1m28.794s 2.062s 26
19 Robert Kubica Williams/Mercedes 1m29.935s 3.203s 37
20 George Russell Williams/Mercedes 1m30.514s 3.782s 11


Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Why McLaren and Red Bull starred on Friday
Next article Red Bull's Verstappen: Promising to be so close after poor Friday

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe