Valtteri Bottas edges Hamilton in second British GP practice
Valtteri Bottas headed up a one-two finish for 🍰Mercedes in second practice for the British Grand Prix on Friday at Silverst🌸one, narrowly beating teammate Lewis Hamilton to set the fastest time of the session.
After finishing second-qui🐷ckest in FP1, Bottas was abl🐻e to continue his strong showing on Friday to head the field through FP2 with a best lap time of 1m26.732s.
Bottas had set the quickest time on the Medium-compound tyre before making the switch to Softs, but initially failed to improve on his best effort after a scruffy 𝓀first qualifying simulation run.
Valtteri Bottas headed up a one-two finish for Mercedes in second pra꧃ctice for the British Gr💯and Prix on Friday at Silverstone, narrowly beating teammate Lewis Hamilton to set the fastest time of the session.
After finishing second-quickest in FP1, Bottas was able to🥂 continue his strong showing on Friday to head the field through FP2 with a best laꦍp time of 1m26.732s.
Bottas had set the quickest time on the Medium-compound tyre before ma🍬king the switch to Softs, but initially failed to improve on his best effort after a scrꦡuffy first qualifying simulation run.
The Finn managed to find time on his second push lap on the Softs to open up a 0.069s gap to Hamilton in second place that remained to the end of the session. Bottas lost some track time after Mercedes was forced to change a spark plug on his car as a precaution, but returned to🤪 the track fairly swiftly once the switch had been made.
Hamilton himself struggled on his qualifying simulation, failing to match Bottas' Medium-tyre pace and then making a mistake exiting Becketts on his second push lap, leaving the five-time w꧑orld champion in second place.
Ferrari remained within striking distance of Mercedes at the front as Charles Leclerc took third place, two-tenths of a second shy of Bottas's best time, with teammate Sebastian Vettel ending the day fourth-fastest🐬.
FP1 leader Pierre Gasly once again finished as the lead Red Bull driver in fifth pl🦂ace after teammate Max Verstappen could only finish seventh-fastest, the pair split by McLaren's Lando Norris.
Carlos Sainz underlined Norris's good pace by finis♛hing eighth in the sister McLaren, while Toro Rosso's Alexander Albon and Racing Point's Sergio Perez completed the top 10.
Daniel Ricciardo was forced to park his car u🌃p at the side of the track in the final 15 minutes after an engine issue, albeit using one of the older-spec units ahead of a planned switch to a Spec-B engine on Saturday, meaning no penalty will be triggered.
The other driver to hit trouble in FP2 was Geo🧸rge Russell, who missed the second hಌalf of the session due to a gearbox issue that the team is set to investigate tonight.
Running resumeꦚs at 11am on Saturday at Silverstone with Free Practice 3 ahead♔ of qualifying.
