Lewis Hamilton remained the man to beat as hot temperatures and a stiff wind actually saw lap times rise in the second practice session at the French GP.
The Mercedes driver posted a 1m32.539s on the Ultrasoft tyre during the qualifying simulations, which was three-tenths slower than he managed on the same compound in the morning.
Yet it was enough to lead both Red Bulls by seven-tenths of a second with Daniel Ricciardo just ahead of teammate Max Verstappen.
The reason for the pace slowing was hotter temperatures at Paul Ricard, with the mercury passing 30 degrees in the air and over 50 on track. Also, the well-known Mistral wind continued to blow, making conditions pretty tricky for the drivers on the exposed circuit.
Ferrari’s steady start to the weekend continued with Kimi Raikkonen again the fastest of the two Prancing Horse’s in P4, three-tenths clear of Sebastian Vettel, who later admitted he was still getting to grips with the challenge of the Le Castellet track.
The final member of leading sextet, Valtteri Bottas, was in seventh place as a water leak discovered during a mid-session red flag saw the Finn stranded in the garage for the second half of the session.
That allowed Romain Grosjean upto P6 in his Haas, as the Frenchman continues as the fastest midfield runner ahead of his first home Grand Prix.
Sergio Perez was the cause of the red flag, as the Mexican’s Force India shed its left-rear wheel entering the Mistral Straight before rolling at some pace for quite some distance down the 1.8km stretch.
The team escaped penalty, however, after it was discovered debris in the wheel nut had misinformed the mechanic as to how tightly it was attached and the tyre worked itself loose before eventually coming free.
A late Ultrasoft tyre run for Fernando Alonso saw the McLaren driver move up to P8, likely flattering the actual pace of the MCL32. A late spin also highlighted just how hard the double world champion was pushing.
Kevin Magnussen solidified Haas’ strong pace in P9 while Pierre Gasly also continued his solid start to his home GP weekend in P10 for Toro Rosso.
The junior Red Bull team continues to look much more competitive thanks to the upgraded Honda engine but there was a concern over reliability when Brendon Hartley pulled off during the later race simulation with flames seen in the exhaust of his STR13.
Outside the top 10, Renault’s disappointing start to their first race weekend in France in 10 years continued with Nico Hulkenberg and Carlos Sainz 11th and 12th respectively.
As speculation increases that he could be jumping to Ferrari in 2019, Charles Leclerc continues to punch above his weight in 14th for Sauber, while arguably the future of French motorsport, Esteban Ocon continues to struggle in P16, likely as a result of Perez’s wheel failure.
Following his fiery exit from Practice 1, Marcus Ericsson unsurprisingly didn’t take part in the afternoon as his team rebuilt his heavily damaged car.
Full results from the second session can be seen below:
