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Sainz leads Hamilton in British GP practice 2
Ferrari's Carlos Sainz topped second practice at the British Grand Prix ahead of a resurgent Mercedes in the hands of Lewis Hamilton.
The Spaniard was lucky to keep his best time, however, of 1m28.942s after running wide at Copse thanks to a combination of his bouncing car and a tailwind down the old pit straight, though he arguably lost time in the second sector as a result anyway.
The lap time being allowed to stand, Sainz ended the session 0.163s quicker than home hero Lewis Hamilton in an encouraging result for Mercedes and its latest major update package.
Silverstone Circuit is expected to suit the W13 better than the run of street and semi-permanent tracks used over the last two months, but Hamilton nonetheless complained of bouncing through the high-speed corners during the session, albeit without it appearing to affect his relative performance through those parts of the course.
Lando Norris was an impressive third and 0.176s off the pace after having briefly led the session partway through the qualifying simulation runs, with McLaren expecting its inconsistent car to be more potent around the flowing layout than it was in Canada two week ago, where it failed to score points.
The Briton’s only problem came in pit lane, when an unusual failure of the rear jack dumped the car onto its floor during a tire change, albeit without any damage appearing to be done.
Championship leader Max Verstappen was fourth and 0.207s slower than Sainz. The Dutchman raised concerns early in the hour that his car was making a grinding sound but was assured it was nothing serious. However, he and Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez -- who finished down in seventh -- compiled the second-smallest lap count of any team through the session despite the effective loss of FP1 to rain.
Charles Leclerc followed in fifth. The Monegasque too complained of strange noises from his Ferrari, albeit concerning enough for him to return to pit lane. Leclerc took a new exhaust system for Friday along with teammate Sainz adopting his last free turbocharger, MGU-H and MGU-K, putting him on the brink of penalties.
Fernando Alonso took Alpine’s latest major update to sixth in the order ahead of Perez and Mercedes’s George Russell, who seemed to bear the brunt of the traffic incidents through the busy sessions as teams attempted to make up for the rained-out first practice session.
Daniel Ricciardo was almost a second off the pace in ninth ahead of Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll in 10th. Valtteri Bottas, who topped FP1, was 11th for Alfa Romeo ahead of Sebastian Vettel.
Esteban Ocon set only 12 laps after suffering a crack in his new sidepod kit, contributed to Alpine completing the fewest laps as it evaluated its updates.
Alex Albon was 14th in his dramatically revised Williams machine ahead of Zhou Guanyu.
AlphaTauri teammates Yuki Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly were 16th and 18th, breaking up Haas duo Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher in 17th and 19th respectively.
Nicholas Latifi, running the old-spec Williams bodywork, was 10th and 2.3s off the pace.
Presented by:
Michael Lamonato
Having first joined the F1 press corps in 2012 by what he assumed was administrative error, Michael has since made himself one of the few Australian regulars in the press room. Graduating in print journalism and later radio, he worked his way from community media to Australia's ABC Grandstand as an F1 broadcaster, and his voice is now heard on the official Australian Grand Prix podcast, the F1 Strategy Report and Box of Neutrals. Though he'd prefer to be recognized for his F1 expertise, in parts of hometown Melbourne his reputation for once being sick in a kart will forever precede him.
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