Charles Leclerc took over at the top of the timesheets as Ferrari enjoyed another one-two in second practice for the German Grand Prix.
As the air temperature rose to the highest number seen all season at over 38C, teams faced a tough task in gaining representative data for the cooler and possible wetter conditions expected over the weekend.
But what was clear in the heat was Ferrari’s engine advantage as Leclerc and Vettel pulled out enough of a margin over Mercedes in the first two sectors to negate the performance of the German manufacturer in the final stadium section.
Initially, all the teams completed a first run using either the medium or hard tyre in response to the extreme weather.
And it was Lewis Hamilton who led by around four-tenths on the medium from Valtteri Bottas and Leclerc, both using the hard tyre.
Eventually, the switch was made to the soft tye for the qualifying simulations.
And it was then that Ferrari returned to the top with Leclerc setting a 1m13.449s, a tenth clear of Sebastian Vettel.
Hamilton was only 0.022s behind the German in third, before a half-second gap back to Bottas and Max Verstappen in fourth and fifth.
The midfield took a very different shape from recent races as Romain Grosjean was the surprise leader in sixth for Haas.
His Australia-spec car saw him just ahead of Lance Stroll’s freshly upgraded Racing Point in seventh, with Kimi Raikkonen a solid eighth for Alfa Romeo.
Nico Hulkenberg claimed ninth for Renault before later suffering engine cut-outs, in one case leaving him (and an unsuspecting Lando Norris) stranded at the end of the pit-lane.
Sergio Perez validated Racing Point’s improvement with the new upgrades by completing the top 10.
Several notable drivers were left down the field, including Pierre Gasly in a lowly 15th in the Red Bull.
To make matters worse, the Frenchman went on to crash in the race simulation at the final corner, bringing out the red flags with two wheels hanging from his car.
McLaren also struggled in the heat with Carlos Sainz only P11 and Norris P16, much lower than the British team has been in recent races.
Daniel Ricciardo was a lowly 13th, half a second down on teammate Hulkenberg, while Kevin Magnussen was a massive 1.3s slower than Grosjean in 18th, despite running the updated Haas.
At the back, Williams remained slowest by quite some margin, although it’s not known if the team was running the new parts which looked quite promising Robert Kubica in the morning.
Full results from Practice 2 can be seen below:
