Valtteri Bottas proved he won’t be a pushover for Lewis Hamilton this weekend as he led Practice 2 at the British Grand Prix.
With conditions more stable, albeit still with a gusty wind, teams were able to complete much more productive running at Silverstone on Friday afternoon.
And on the Medium tyre, the Finn was in a league of his own as his Mercedes teammate struggled for a clean lap around his home track.
The gaps would reduce dramatically on the Soft compound though, with Bottas only improving his best time by a tenth with a 1m26.732s.
Hamilton would run wide at Becketts on his first run but finally produced a good run on his following lap to finish just 0.069s behind in P2.
Mercedes don’t have it all their own way though, as Charles Leclerc was less than 0.2s behind in third for Ferrari, suggesting the Italian team can challenge if they produce the perfect weekend.
The Monegasque also continues as the lead driver at the Scuderia, going a quarter of a second faster than teammate Sebastian Vettel in fourth
After leading the morning session, Pierre Gasly remained competitive in fifth, within a tenth of the second Ferrari for Red Bull.
The Frenchman was three-tenths ahead of Max Verstappen after the Dutchman made a mistake at Becketts on his best lap and was only seventh.
Lando Norris was able to split the two RB15’s in sixth, as McLaren established themselves at the head of the midfield with Carlos Sainz in eighth.
Alex Albon made the top 10 for the second straight session in P9 for Toro Rosso and Sergio Perez completed the top 10 for Racing Point.
Down the order, Kevin Magnussen was left to lead Haas’ charge in P12, while teammate Romain Grosjean’s woes continued down in 18th.
Kimi Raikkonen made up for the engine issue in the morning by claiming 13th for Alfa Romeo.
But it was a tough afternoon for Renault, as Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg sat only 14th and 15th.
To make matters worse, the Australian would pull off the track during the race simulation after his power unit cut out through the Maggotts, Becketts sequence.
At the back, gearbox issues also kept George Russell in the garage, allowing Robert Kubica a rare session ahead of his Williams teammate.
Full results from Practice 2 can be seen below:
