FP2: Back-to-back P1s for Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton gave the British GP fans plenty to cheer about on Friday as he grabbed the practice 1-2 at his home race.

The Mercedes driver, who set the pace in the morning, ran largely unchallenged throughout the session as his main rival Nico Rosberg was stuck in the garage.

The German’s W07 suffered a water leak and although Rosberg climbed into the car 35 minutes into the 90-minute session, he was soon climbing out as Mercedes found another issue.

“Sadly it’s curtains for Nico Rsberg’s running today,” the Brackley team tweeted. “Driver out, bodywork off, investigation beginning…”

As such Hamilton had free reign over the timesheets with his 1:31.660 on the soft Pirellis.

Daniel Ricciardo put in an incredible effort to go second, 0.391s down, while his team-mate Max Verstappen was third. The Spanish GP winner was a further 0.235s down.

Ferrari fell behind the Red Bulls with Sebastian Vettel fourth quickest ahead of Kimi Raikkonen. The German was also the final driver to get within a second of Hamilton’s P1 time.

Fernando Alonso was one of the last to put in his soft tyre run and he shot up to sixth on the timesheets with the aid of Honda’s latest ICE upgrade. He was 1.380s off the pace.

Valtteri Bottas, Romain Grosjean ahead of Jenson Button. The Brit had a few troubles during the 90-minutes.

He was told by the McLaren pit wall “OK Jenson, back off please, we need to box” and slowly made his way into the pits after replying: “It’s very strange power.”

His troubles continued as his informed his team: “Unbelievably low grip, it’s a fight the whole time.”. He was 2.103s off the pace.

Felipe Massa completed the top ten ahead of Carlos Sainz.

His team-mate Daniil Kvyat, who spun through the final corner early in the session, was left with a broken front wing and in need of a trip back to the pits for repairs. He finished P12.

Times
1 Lewis Hamilton  Mercedes 1’31.660 36 laps
2 Daniel Ricciardo  Red Bull 1’32.051 +0.391 30 laps
3 Max Verstappen  Red Bull 1’32.286 +0.626 36 laps
4 Sebastian Vettel  Ferrari 1’32.570 +0.910 40 laps
5 Kimi Raikkonen  Ferrari 1’32.736 +1.076 38 laps
6 Fernando Alonso  McLaren 1’33.040 +1.380 31 laps
7 Valtteri Bottas  Williams 1’33.493 +1.833 38 laps
8 Romain Grosjean  Haas 1’33.614 +1.954 32 laps
9 Jenson Button  McLaren 1’33.763 +2.103 20 laps
10 Felipe Massa  Williams 1’33.801 +2.141 29 laps
11 Carlos Sainz Jr.  Toro Rosso 1’33.840 +2.180 27 laps
12 Esteban Gutierrez  Haas 1’34.000 +2.340 31 laps
13 Daniil Kvyat  Toro Rosso 1’34.139 +2.479 35 laps
14 Felipe Nasr  Sauber 1’34.154 +2.494 25 laps
15 Nico Hulkenberg  Force India 1’34.321 +2.661 35 laps
16 Sergio Perez  Force India 1’34.356 +2.696 36 laps
17 Pascal Wehrlein  Manor 1’34.549 +2.889 40 laps
18 Jolyon Palmer  Renault 1’34.610 +2.950 41 laps
19 Marcus Ericsson  Sauber 1’34.722 +3.062 35 laps
20 Kevin Magnussen  Renault 1’34.959 +3.299 40 laps
21 Rio Haryanto  Manor 1’35.841 +4.181 36 laps
22 Nico Rosberg  Mercedes 0 laps