Sebastian Vettel suggested Mercedes won’t have things their own way at the British Grand Prix after leading second practice on Friday.
As the summer heatwave continues, temperatures rose to unexpected highs at Silverstone and with that lap times actually didn’t improve compared to those seen in the morning.
But, Ferrari’s strength in hot conditions did shine through as Vettel posted a 1m27.5522, a tenth slower than Lewis Hamilton’s morning best but enough to enjoy an almost two-tenths advantage over the world champion, who set his best time at the third attempt on the Soft compound tyres.
The two Finns, Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen, maintained third and fourth as the leading quartet was covered by less than half a second, a good omen for the rest of the weekend.
Red Bull appear on the back foot, however, with Daniel Ricciardo over four-tenths behind the second Ferrari in fifth and Max Verstappen’s session ending on his second lap as his RB14 tank-slappered on the exit of Luffield and spun the Dutchman into the wall.
The session would have to be red-flagged to clear his car away, with Max later admitting he simply pushed too hard, too early on the Hard tyre, which is making its 2018 debut this weekend.
He would be one of two drivers not to post a time in Practice 2 with Romain Grosjean having to watch on as Haas prepared a new chassis following his crash at Abbey in the morning.
With one of the usual leading midfield drivers in the garage then, Fernando Alonso gave McLaren fans something to cheer in sixth, however, it may have been somewhat of a glory run as the Spaniard was eight-tenths faster than teammate Stoffel Vandoorne, who was only 17th fastest.
Instead, the ‘best of the rest’ fight looks set to be between Renault, Force India, Haas and maybe even Charles Leclerc as those cars were covered by just over a quarter of a second on Friday afternoon.
Nico Hulkenberg would sit seventh, just ahead of the two ‘pink panthers’ as Esteban Ocon led teammate Sergio Perez. Leclerc, despite a few more off-track excursions, would complete the top 10 for Sauber with Carlos Sainz and Kevin Magnussen right on his tail.
Pierre Gasly would stop by the side of the track with a mechanical issue around the halfway point in his Toro Rosso, but the Frenchman would still be relatively competitive in 13th.
Marcus Ericsson, perhaps the most unpopular driver at Silverstone on Saturday, was 14th just ahead of the two Williams’ of Lance Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin.
Then came Vandoorne with Brendon Hartley bringing up the times in the second Toro Rosso.
The full results of second practice can be seen below:
