Hamilton over Bottas in Emirates GP practice 2

Lewis Hamilton in the unbeatable Mercedes

With no other competition except themselves, Lewis Hamilton turned the tables on his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas to lead the 2nd practice session Friday for the Emirates GP at Silverstone by 0.176 seconds.

Mercedes rather making a mockery of the hopes that they might come back to the field in the higher temperatures, with Hamilton and Bottas well over half a second ahead of the field. And somewhat ominously, Hamilton set his fastest time on the medium compound tires.

Vettel climbs from Stricken Ferrari

Daniel Ricciardo was third quick for Renault. 0.815s back while Max Verstappen and Lance Stroll rounded out the top-5.

The fastest Ferrari was Charles Leclerc in 7th 1.2 seconds behind while Sebastian Vettel could only manage 14th 1.6 seconds back after spewing his Ferrari's engine guts all over the track.

Giovinazzi, using the same Ferrari engine as Vettel, pulled off the track with oil leaking out the bottom of the car.

Sergio Perez's stand-in Nico Hulkenberg finished the afternoon session P6, just over two-tenths behind fifth-place teammate Lance Stroll. The midfield battle continued to be super close, with just half-a-second splitting sixth-place Hulkenberg and 15th-place Romain Grosjean.

Ahead of the Racing Points was Red Bull's Max Verstappen, while teammate Alex Albon finished 11th behind Renault's Esteban Ocon. Renault were the only team to run the hard tire for long periods on Friday afternoon as others focused on long runs using medium and soft tires – which are one step softer than the tires used in last week's British GP.

Charles Leclerc managed 32 laps to go seventh-fastest behind Hulkenberg, with both McLaren drivers – led by Lando Norris, a tenth faster than Carlos Sainz – in P8 and P9.

Quotes

Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport

Lewis Hamilton (1st, 1:25.606): "It's been a good start to the weekend. We brought a lot of learnings over from last week and with just a few small adjustments to the set-up we've been able to fine-tune the car and make some progress, which is positive. Both the Soft and Medium tires feel very similar out there and there's not a huge amount of time between them. We saw some overheating with the tires, so they are going to take some nursing to get the best out of them. It was great to take the win here last weekend, but I know just how strong Valtteri is and as we saw last weekend, absolutely anything can happen in F1."

Valtteri Bottas (2nd, 1:25.782): "We learned a lot last week, so the starting set-up today was good. The car felt more comfortable than in the race or in qualifying, so the balance already feels pretty much there. We focused a lot on the tires today and there doesn't seem to be a lot between the Medium and the Soft when it comes to single lap pace. The Soft is struggling with the high-speed corners, especially in these hot temperatures and if you're running on higher fuel. We'll look tonight at all the options and make sure we get the plan right for qualifying. It should be good fun tomorrow."

Andrew Shovlin: "It looks like everyone ran an unusual program today in terms of tires but we're all trying to get enough of the medium and hard into our qualifying and race allocation. The soft is a tricky tire, it's working quite nicely on a single lap but on a long run it's not lasting long. We expect most teams will try to avoid that tire in the race. The medium seems more durable and it's not much slower compared to the soft on a single lap. We've got a fair understanding of the track from last week, so we were able to use some of the running in free practice to sign off a few development parts and do some experiments. It's been pretty hot today but our pace looks reasonable for a Friday on both short and long runs which is useful as the hot weather looks like it will carry into Saturday and Sunday."

Scuderia Ferrari

Charles Leclerc (7th, 1:26.812): "It wasn't bad today, although a bit more difficult than last Friday. We are working to try and understand the tires, as there's quite a big change of grip between the Medium and the Soft. We are a bit too slow on the Medium, which is unusual for us. The car balance feels pretty good, it's just the general performance which is not as good as we had hoped for on the Medium. There are still a few things to work on in view of qualifying tomorrow with the aim of going through Q2 on Medium tires, which we think a lot of cars will try to do. Anyway, it'll be very interesting to see what compound everyone will start the race on and it should be an unpredictable race with many different strategies."

Sebastian Vettel (14th, 1:27.198): "We tried a couple of things today and overall I'm a little bit happier than last week, but we are not very competitive at the moment and we need to have a look at the data to see what we can work on. On the Soft tire the car is good on the first lap, then it becomes a bit more difficult. We are trying to save the harder compounds for the race, so we need to see where we are in quali and then we will decide the strategy for the race. There are some key area where we need to try to improve the car. They are probably small things, but hopefully we will get a bit more competitive. On the engine failure I can say that it was very sudden. We have to see what it is but it will take some time, because the engine has to be sent to Maranello for analysis."

Red Bull Racing

Max Verstappen (4th, 1:26.437): "We did everything we wanted to today so I'm pretty pleased with that and overall it has been alright. The gap to Mercedes last weekend was big, so of course I think it's quite normal that we can't magically change things within a few days, but we are doing what we can. We tried a few things with the car, I think some were really decent but we will of course have to go through it properly tonight and see tomorrow. I think it could be quite close in qualifying with the group behind but then in the race it could be quite lonely again. The softer tires had a lot more degradation today and I think it's almost impossible to do a one stop now. I guess you will see a lot of two stop strategies in the race but I don't expect the change in tires to really set the order any differently."

Alexander Albon (11th, 1:26.960): "We're making progress session by session in terms of trying to get what I want from the car and now we just need to do our homework tonight to come back stronger tomorrow. It was a pretty straightforward day and we played around with a few things to see what helped and what didn't. This weekend the tire compounds are a step softer which I'm not a huge fan of as I think they're too soft for this circuit. Let's see what everyone does tomorrow but I think it's quicker to run on the mediums than the softs. The thing is we only have a certain number of medium and hard tires for the weekend which means you're a little stuck with strategy, so it will be important tomorrow which tire you decide to run in each qualifying session. It's only Friday and everyone's hiding something today so tomorrow we'll get a truer picture."

Renault Sport Formula One Team

Daniel Ricciardo (3rd, 1:26.421): "In the morning we did quite a bit of data gathering so we knew it wasn't going to be totally representative. For the afternoon, we had a bit of a warm-up, made a change to the car, which worked, and it felt great. We had a good run on the Hard and then on the Soft as well. On that Soft run, we still missed out a bit in some areas, so there's definitely more there. Our long runs also looked decent, so that's a good base for Sunday. I think the wind direction is changing tomorrow, so we'll see what happens there. Overall, it's been a good day for us."

Esteban Ocon (10th, 1:26.928): "The first thing we wanted to understand was the softer choice of tires and that was an important area today. It looks positive and the car was clearly quite quick. Daniel's run on the Soft was certainly fast, which is good as we both tested different things and it'll be interesting to see the comparisons. Hopefully we can repeat that tomorrow. We had a few problems here and there, but nothing too crazy and the car generally felt reasonable all day."

Ciaron Pilbeam, Chief Race Engineer: "We've had quite a good day with both cars getting through their programs smoothly. Our focus in the morning was on various aero assessments and we spent some time in both sessions understanding the Soft tire in particular, which is a step softer this week. We're pretty happy with our work today. Everybody ran the same tires in the morning session, but we have done something different with our tires compared to most others in the afternoon, and it will be interesting to see how the consequences of that shake out through the rest of the weekend. Both drivers are happy with their car and as normal for a Friday, we have some work to do to find a little bit extra for tomorrow. Daniel's Soft tire run in the afternoon was quite quick, but it's only Friday, so we're not getting too excited!"

Haas F1 Team

Romain Grosjean (15th, 1:27.294): "It was a good Friday, you know, P13, P15 – those are the positions we're fighting for. The car felt absolutely mega from the morning. We worked around tricky conditions with the hot, softer tires and then the wind also picked up a little more this afternoon, which made things a bit more interesting. Generally, I've been very happy with the car though. I think we've done a good job; I think we're moving in the right direction. Hopefully we can find a little bit more for the race on Sunday. We know what we have with our package and we always push as hard as we can."

Kevin Magnussen (18th, 1:27.582): "We couldn't really get the car working in FP1, but it was a lot better in FP2. We're lacking a little bit of straight-line speed compared to the other car. We lost a little bit of time, but we know it's got to be there somewhere. The car was much better in the corners, handling-wise, as a positive. It's tricky this time around as we have these softer tires. It's a challenge. The higher pressures aren't making it easier, it's tough, but I guess those things are the same for everyone. It's going to be interesting to see what we do with strategy and how to manage these soft tires on the track. Last week the car handled very well so we need to get it back into the same kind of handling. It's obviously slightly different with these tires, we at least have the C2 and C3 knowledge from last week, but the C4 tire is a completely different story."

Guenther Steiner, Team Principal: "I would say it was a good FP1 and FP2 for us – we had no problems, no issues, we found we had a good balance. For sure, there is more work to be done, but I think we got out of the car what we could, and we learned a lot in doing it. I think we've improved the car from where we were last week with all the team continuing to work here over the week. We just need a little bit more, we're trying to squeeze everything out of it that we can at the moment. Hopefully tomorrow we can make another step and get into Q2 in qualifying – that's our aim. Everybody's working hard to achieve that."

McLaren F1 Team

Lando Norris (8th, 1:26.867): "A tricky day, not as straightforward as last weekend. Trying to understand these tires was a bit more difficult as they are quite soft. Obviously, everyone out there lapped pretty well on new tires, but they degrade a lot in the high-fuel long runs. So, we're struggling with getting them to last, but at the same time I think we got a good understanding of the balance. Like last week, I think conditions are going to change quite a lot come tomorrow, so we'll wait to see what happens."

Carlos Sainz (9th, 1:26.918): "A bit of a different Friday, choosing to run only Soft tires through the whole day. All cars seem to struggle with degradation, so it was important to gather as much information as possible to learn on that side. Tire choice will play a big part for the rest of the weekend, so we needed as much data as possible in order to take better decisions. Generally, the feeling with the car in FP2 was quite decent. We need to double-check the speed on the straights, as usual in Silverstone, but in general the feeling was fine today."

Andrea Stella, Racing Director: "For the second week in a row, we had good conditions at Silverstone for Friday practice, and this allowed us to work uninterrupted on our objectives. This weekend, those were to find some incremental gains in our performance, and also to develop a better understanding of these tires. Tires, obviously, are a key topic this weekend – not just because of the failures during the British Grand Prix, but also because the allocation is a step softer, which is obviously quite extreme at a demanding track like this one. Our sessions went well, we have gathered good data and we'll analyze this overnight to give us the best of chance making Q3 and scoring good points in the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix on Sunday."

Racing Point F1 Team

Lance Stroll (5th, 1:26.501): "It was definitely a positive day of running and it's looking very tight between the teams. We've done plenty of laps around Silverstone now, which helps close all the gaps up, so it's about maximizing everything this weekend. We'll go away tonight and make sure we come back tomorrow with the car dialed in and ready to go for qualifying. Pirelli has brought a softer range this weekend, which is giving all the teams a challenge because degradation is expected to be more of a factor in the race. Tomorrow's practice will be important to help us prepare for qualifying, and I'm expecting an exciting race on Sunday."

Nico Hulkenberg (6th, 1:26.746): "I'm feeling a lot more confident in the car: it helped that I was able to be in the simulator last week to prepare for the weekend. I'm much more familiar with how the team works and I'm more up to speed behind the wheel. It felt like a routine Friday and I was able to extract the pace of the car much more quickly today, which is a big positive. I'm pleased with today because we were able to try a few things with the set-up of the car, and it helped me adapt to the car. We were then able to work through today's program effectively, which gives us a good starting point for the weekend. I felt that there was pace to be found on the medium tire because I didn't have a totally clean lap, and I left some time on the table at the final corner, but all in all, it was a positive Friday."

Alfa Romeo Racing

Kimi Raikkonen (17th, 1:27.535): “The car felt a little bit better than last weekend but there’s still plenty of speed to be found. It was a fairly straightforward Friday, we are working to get some more performance for tomorrow but we will only find where we really stand in qualifying. As always here, we will need to see what conditions we have tomorrow: hopefully we will make a little step forward and improve."

Antonio Giovinazzi (20th, 1:27.955): “It’s always a bit of a challenge to come in after sitting a session out, but we have plenty of data from last week to help us out. We got good info from FP2, we managed to do at least one run during our qualifying simulation and a high-fuel run even though we had to stop the session with a minute to go due to a small technical issue. As always on Friday, we will need to go through all the data we collected and find the best way forward to be in a better shape come qualifying."

Robert Kubica, Reserve Driver: “Silverstone is one of the greatest tracks to drive an F1 car, especially in the fast corners. It was a bit of a shock coming in after racing in DTM last week, but it didn’t take me long to settle in. The car feels pretty good, something I noticed since the tests in Barcelona, but there is still work to do to find more speed. We are working, trying hard to bring more performance but so is everyone: we will need to do our best to gain some ground on everyone else."

Red Bull AlphaTauri Honda

Daniil Kvyat (12th, 1:27.002): "It was a decent Friday and we did quite a lot of productive laps today. The C4 wasn't a big surprise, we will continue to make our tire evaluation to understand what they like or dislike, and as usual, we will analyze all the data to come back tomorrow in the best possible shape for both qualifying and the race."

Pierre Gasly (13th, 1:27.128): "Today I didn't feel as good in the car as last weekend, so we've done many tests between FP1 and FP2. We wanted to try different set-up directions to improve the car but I didn't feel like we've found the best set-up yet. I was pretty happy straight away last weekend, so we'll need to analyze everything tonight and work from there. The gaps are really small but if we want to have a chance for Q3, I think we'll need to find a bit more performance for tomorrow."

Jonathan Eddolls, Chief Race Engineer: "We came to Silverstone for the second weekend in a row, which meant we could continue the set-up work that we started here at the last event, with the advantage that we know we have a good baseline to roll back on. We were able to be a bit braver with some of our set-up changes and we could push the envelope of the car a little bit more than you would on a normal Friday when you first hit the track for only one weekend, so we brought some new ideas on how to maximize the performance of the car that we've got. The cars started the day exploring different directions and the performance we showed in FP1 was promising, so we could build on that for FP2 and make some further changes. The tires this weekend are going to be one of the biggest topics: the C4 is quite aggressive, and there does not seem to be a big lap time difference between the C3 and the C4 for qualifying. You could see from FP2 that there were a range of tire strategies across the grid, with some using the base tire and others only the options, I think that's going to make tomorrow very interesting. Now we have to look through all the data we gathered today to find the best tire strategy and car set-up going into qualifying tomorrow and the race on Sunday."

Williams Racing

George Russell (16th, 1:27.320): "It was good fun out there and the conditions were very different to last week. It was very tricky on the C4 tire, but I think everybody found that tough. At least a third of the grid set their quickest time on the medium tire and not on the soft. I think it will be an interesting and tricky qualifying session. I think if you play it right you can set your quickest lap on the mediums, so there will be some interesting strategies tomorrow."

Nicholas Latifi (19th, 1:27.683): "Overall it was a positive day. Straight away coming back to the same track you already feel in the rhythm. FP1 was quite good and the balance was feeling nice on the new C4 tire. In all honestly, I struggled to find a comfortable balance in FP2, but again we were just trying some different things. I think it's going to be quite an exciting and unpredictable race. I'm not sure how the tire compounds are going to react so I'm looking forward to it. I think if we can show what we showed today, then we will be quite competitive."

Dave Robson, Senior Race Engineer: "We had another productive day, with both sessions providing some very useful testing opportunities. The change in tire compound stiffness from last week – one-step softer – and the lighter winds have changed the car a little since last week. However, we were still able to evaluate some new parts and ideas whilst also understanding the behavior of the soft tire. The car continues to improve, and we are confident that we can consolidate the performance improvement seen last week. The next group of cars are still a little way down the road, but everyone is pushing hard to help us get closer to the heart of the midfield as soon as possible. Both drivers did well today and having back-to-back races at the same venue affords them a rare opportunity to complete some different tests. Both drivers have embraced the tests and provided us with valuable feedback, which will help us set the car ready for what looks likely to be two more warm days here at Silverstone."

Practice 2 Results