Carlos Sainz was fastest in the second practice for the British Grand Prix after going a tenth and a half faster than the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton. The Ferrari driver set a 28.942 on a dry circuit after the first practice session saw very limited running due to wet conditions.
Ferrari goes into the weekend looking to take the fight to Red Bull having not taken victory since Barcelona as their main rivals Red Bull look to have made a big step forwards having won the last three races. The Silverstone circuit should suit them better than the street circuits, Sainz going two-tenths faster than Max Verstappen.
Mercedes have continued to make progress and throughout Friday looked to build on Montreal, the porpoising and bouncing issues which have affected them all season looked not to be as concerning. Hamilton proved the belief of many that once they resolved the issues they could be up there with Red Bull and Ferrari, as the seven-time champion went a hundredth faster than the McLaren of Lando Norris.
Mercedes race simulations were also encouraging, Hamilton on average within a tenth of Leclerc on mediums. While Red Bull and Sainz ran the soft tyre, and on that the Ferrari was very slightly quicker than Verstappen, who complained his rubber wore out after just two laps.
It is too early to say they are in the hunt for pole and the victory, but things are looking a lot brighter for a team who has suffered with violent bouncing and a lack of pace so far this season.
Norris’s performance also adds more intrigue for McLaren, as the team appear to dramatically move up and down the order race to race. After finishing fifteenth in Montreal, the Bristolian was just under two-tenths off, he added “The car seems to be in a decent place, at least, a little better than we were expecting.”
Verstappen was fourth fastest, the Red Bull driver four and a half tenths off the pace however was almost a quarter of a second faster than his championship rival Charles Leclerc. However, the Monacan failed to manage a representative lap on the soft tyres, which suggests there could be more single lap pace from the Ferrari.
Fernando Alonso put his Alpine sixth three tenths behind Sainz, again underlining the team are the ones to watch in the midfield. The Spaniard going nearly six-tenths faster than Sergio Perez and George Russell, as Alpine looks to build towards being the team to beat in battle for fourth in the constructors. The team bringing updates as well for this weekend.
Daniel Ricciardo was ninth eight and a half tenths of the pace but his fastest time was set on the hardest (C1) tyre, but he was still six hundredths faster than the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll, who rounded out the top ten.
Valtteri Bottas was eleventh going six hundredths faster than Sebastian Vettel, the Finn had topped FP1 in the wet, but it was more reprehensive of where Alfa Romeo are expected to be. Esteban Ocon was thirteenth, nearly two-tenths behind Vettel and ahead of Alex Albon.
The British-Thai driver the only Williams driver to receive the team’s upgrade for this weekend spending most of the session with flo-vis paint on the car. Guanyu Zhou was nearly seven hundredths further behind going ahead of Yuki Tsunoda.
Alpha Tauri another team surprisingly off their normal pace, Pierre Gasly complaining of a persistent lack of grip, as Mick Schumacher and Nicholas Latifi completed the order.
