Great Britain Grand Prix – Free Practice 2: Verstappen the fastest, Williams impress
Max Verstappen once again set the fastest time in free practice, just a few thousandths ahead of Carlos Sainz. Behind them, the Williams team is impressive with Alex Albon in 3rd and Logan Sargeant in 5th. Charles Leclerc was unable to take to the track.
The session starts with all drivers working on the medium and hard tires. With the passage of F2 and F3, the low grip of the Silverstone track seems to have disappeared.
In the beginning of the session, Charles Leclerc is unable to take to the track due to a problem with his car. This crucial lack of information for Ferrari and their developments, with only one driver on the track.
The drivers switch to soft tires
After a good twenty minutes on yellow and white tires, the drivers switch to soft compound tires to achieve faster laps. It’s Williams who is making good progress and showing an interesting pace: Albon and Sargeant are 3rd and 5th respectively on the timesheet.
Halfway through the session, Charles Leclerc still has not gotten into his Ferrari #16. That is worrisome.
Mercedes appears to be struggling with Russell in 11th and Hamilton in 15th: no visible pace on the soft tyres during the qualifying simulations. The improvements made on the W14 are hardly noticeable. It’s not the best start to the weekend. Other teams are also facing difficulties. AlphaTauri is stuck at the back of the grid and Lando Norris is struggling to make the McLaren upgrades work.
The status of long relays
On long stints, Max Verstappen is the fastest, unsurprisingly. Carlos Sainz is also maintaining a good race pace but is degrading his tires after a few laps. Perez seems to be in the race as well. Aston Martin should have more performance than in Austria. On the Mercedes side, the race pace seems to be better than the qualifying pace. Ferrari feels threatened by the Mercedes’ pace: when Sainz’s engineer gave him Hamilton’s lap times, he exclaimed, “That’s very fast.” With only one car on the track, this is not good news for Ferrari. Indeed, the issues with Leclerc’s car have not been resolved and the Monegasque driver has never returned to the track.
The Alpines don’t seem to have managed to get their new components working perfectly, with Gasly in 8th and Ocon in 13th. They will have to get back on track tomorrow to improve their car.
At the very end of the session, Nyck de Vries had a puncture on the front left tire.
Max Verstappen takes the fastest time ahead of Sainz. It is the Williams that impress in this second session, while McLaren and Alpine are a bit more uncertain.
The ranking of this FP2
| N° | Driver | Team | Times | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Verstappen | Oracle Red Bull Racing | 1:28.078 | 26 | |
| 2 | Sainz | Scuderia Ferrari | 1:28.100 | +0.022 | 28 |
| 3 | Albon | Williams Racing | 1:28.296 | +0.218 | 29 |
| 4 | Perez | Oracle Red Bull Racing | 1:28.342 | +0.264 | 29 |
| 5 | Sargeant | Williams Racing | 1:28.766 | +0.688 | 28 |
| 6 | Stroll | Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team | 1:28.866 | +0.788 | 29 |
| 7 | Hülkenberg | MoneyGram Haas F1 Team | 1:28.880 | +0.802 | 27 |
| 8 | Gasly | BWT Alpine F1 Team | 1:28.889 | +0.811 | 26 |
| 9 | Piastri | McLaren F1 Team | 1:28.926 | +0.848 | 28 |
| 10 | Alonso | Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team | 1:29.134 | +1.056 | 25 |
| 11 | Guanyu | Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake | 1:29.225 | +1.147 | 27 |
| 12 | Russell | Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport | 1:29.238 | +1.160 | 24 |
| 13 | Ocon | BWT Alpine F1 Team | 1:29.242 | +1.164 | 23 |
| 14 | Norris | McLaren F1 Team | 1:29.260 | +1.182 | 23 |
| 15 | Hamilton | Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport | 1:29.283 | +1.205 | 23 |
| 16 | Bottas | Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake | 1:29.378 | +1.300 | 27 |
| 17 | Magnussen | MoneyGram Haas F1 Team | 1:29.439 | +1.361 | 19 |
| 18 | Tsunoda | Scuderia AlphaTauri | 1:29.483 | +1.405 | 25 |
| 19 | De Vries | Scuderia AlphaTauri | 1:29.571 | +1.493 | 29 |
| 20 | Leclerc | Scuderia Ferrari | pas de temps | 0 |
