F1: Hamilton continues domination in Turkey

Not only did Lewis Hamilton lead both Practice 1 and Practice 2 for this weekend’s Turkish GP in Istanbul, the race pace in his Mercedes is phenomenal. His arch rival, Max Verstappen, is in trouble so far, much slower on both qualifying and race pace.

Hamilton’s lap of 1m23.804s was 0.166s faster than the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc. While his 1-lap pace wasn’t bad, Leclerc’s race pace is not competitive. Like Red Bull, Ferrari has work to do overnight as well.

Valtteri Bottas was 3rd quick in the 2nd Mercedes 0.41s back.

Miraculously Sergio Perez was faster than his Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen in 4th and 5th. This is rare to see, so perhaps Verstappen is sandbagging.

Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen in their new retro-Honda colors for this weekend. They are superior to the regular drab Red Bull colors

Aston Martin are considering an engine change overnight on their hapless cars as both Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel are out to lunch.

So it is Hamilton to the fore – but he won’t be on pole here, as he has that ten place grid penalty to serve after taking a fourth ICE for the season, exceeding his allocation of three.

Could this be a Leclerc specialty circuit? He has two poles this season already, and is pretty handy over one lap.

There is just one hour of practice left then, but will it stay dry? There is some overnight rain forecast, which could play a part in tomorrow’s proceedings. And as for qualifying, who knows what will happen.

One thing is for sure – on pure pace, Hamilton is the man to beat so far.

Lewis Hamilton gets service from his impeccable Mercedes crew

Practice 2 Results

POS	DRIVER	NAT.	TEAM	TIME	BEHIND
1	Lewis Hamilton	GBR	Mercedes AMG Petronas	1m23.804s	+0.000s
2	Charles Leclerc	MON	Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow	1m23.970s	+0.166
3	Valtteri Bottas	FIN	Mercedes AMG Petronas	1m24.214s	+0.410
4	Sergio Perez	MEX	Red Bull Racing	1m24.373s	+0.569
5	Max Verstappen	NED	Red Bull Racing	1m24.439s	+0.635
6	Lando Norris	GBR	McLaren F1 Team	1m24.525s	+0.721
7	Fernando Alonso	CHI	Alpine F1 Team	1m24.660s	+0.856
8	Esteban Ocon	FRA	Alpine F1 Team	1m24.672s	+0.866
9	Pierre Gasly	FRA	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	1m24.756s	+0.952
10	Antonio Giovinazzi	GBR	Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen	1m24.796s	+0.992
11	Yuki Tsunoda	JPN	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	1m24.882s	+1.078
12	Carlos Sainz	ESP	Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow	1m24.903s	+1.099
13	Lance Stroll	CAN	Aston Martin Cognizant	1m25.020s	+1.216
14	Daniel Ricciardo	AUS	McLaren F1 Team	1m25.060s	+1.256
15	Kimi Raikkonen	FIN	Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen	1m25.143s	+1.339
16	Sebastian Vettel	GER	Aston Martin Cognizant	1m25.229s	+1.425
17	Nicholas Latifi	CAN	Williams Racing	1m23.307s	+1.503
18	George Russell	ISR	Williams Racing	1m25.358s	+1.554
19	Mick Schumacher	GER	Uralkali Haas F1 Team	1m25.480s	+1.676
20	Nikita Mazepin	RUS	Uralkali Haas F1 Team	1m25.698s	+1.894