The weather worsened for the second practice session and for almost all of the first hour hardly anyone ventured out on track at all.
Bruno Senna and Timo Glock were the first to set times but both quickly returned to the garage saying there was no point in running as the track continued to get wetter.
It wasn’t until there was less than 40 minutes left that the rain finally stopped and drivers began taking to the track. Kamui Kobayashi was the first and gradually other followed him.
But the session was stopped shortly afterwards as Senna crashed at Chapel. The Williams driver lost control of his car coming onto the Hangar straight and damager both ends of the FW32 against the barrier.
Once the session was resumed the track got busier again, with Kobayashi again leading the way. But Lewis Hamilton – who had gone for a stroll up the pit lane with an umbrella during the worst of the rain – took over at the top of the times with a 1’56.345.
Several of the other front-runners only appeared on intermediate tyres, not wanting to use up their limited allocation of wet-weather tyres. They included Sebastian Vettel, who was so slow he held up Timo Glock and was overtaken by the Marussia.
Fernando Alonso also went out on intermediate tyres and set a time good enough for tenth. But he spun at Stowe on his final lap and clipped the barrier, taking off his front wing.
The session ended with Hamilton on top ahead of the busy Kobayashi. Romain Grosjean and Daniel Ricciardo – the fastest two drivers from the first session – opted not to set times.
2012 British Grand Prix
- Second Driver of the Weekend win for Mark Webber
- Rate the race result: 2012 British Grand Prix
- Hamilton’s doughnut and more fans’ videos from Silverstone
- Silverstone fans’ mixed views on the rain-hit weekend
- Top three tie in British predictions round
Image © McLaren/Hoch Zwei
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
6th July 2012, 15:40
Times couldn’t be less relevant than this :P.
Is it going to be dry tomorrow?
Althasil (@althasil)
6th July 2012, 15:45
The local weather says that about a month’s worth of rain is due over the weekend. Not looking likely :/
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
6th July 2012, 16:17
So it’s going to be like a Remastered version of Canadian 2011 ? :P
Andy (@turbof1)
6th July 2012, 17:23
I hope for a second 2008 Silverstone; canada 2011 had too much rain and thus cars had to drive behind the safety car for a long while. The race itself was fantastic, but Silverstone is not Canada, with overtaking more difficult.
bag0 (@bag0)
6th July 2012, 18:00
I’ve said it before, but say it again: I want a race like the 2006 Hungarian GP :)
DelendaEstAmbulando
6th July 2012, 22:49
but without the disastrous tyre change for Nano
Force Maikel (@force-maikel)
6th July 2012, 15:40
Nothing we can learn from this, most people just trying to get a feeling for the wet track.
sushant008 (@sushant008)
6th July 2012, 15:51
British weather is ruining the F1,we hardly saw any on track activity.
Mike (@mike)
6th July 2012, 16:10
Oh how things have changed.
DRS and Pirelli have done the job.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
6th July 2012, 16:19
@sushant008 @mike
LOL, yeah… as if fridays were exciting in the first place anyway…
Mike (@mike)
7th July 2012, 0:53
Haha :D
verstappen (@verstappen)
6th July 2012, 16:26
As long as there’s a proper race without all too much safetycar, or rather none at all, I can’t be bothered about no free practice running.
Michael Brown (@)
6th July 2012, 17:20
Tire allocation made this practice session boring. If the weekend stays as wet as it is, teams are going to run out of wet tires. The wet tires probably won’t last the full race distance, so that’s 2 out of the 3 tires they have gone.
Tim Hutchinson (@darak)
6th July 2012, 17:49
I think I’d enjoy watching that qualifying session. One set of tyres to set fast times across the first two sessions. Do you try and save a little bit of them in Q1? Or risk inters just to save a set?
bag0 (@bag0)
6th July 2012, 18:02
@darak No, you dont risk it, as Alonso showed it today.
Michael Brown (@)
6th July 2012, 18:18
It might be worth a shot if there is a rush of cars in the qualifying session, creating more of a drying line than today. That scenario is unlikely I think. This is all assuming it’s still going to be full wet weather by tomorrow and Sunday.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
6th July 2012, 21:17
@lite992 The teams have been given an extra set of tyres. Besides, why would the teams risk damaging the cars?
Colossal Squid (@colossal-squid)
6th July 2012, 16:21
If the rain continues in this fashion then the race will be either a farce, with a huge amount of running behind the safety car or a massively entertaining lottery in the vein of Spa 1998.
Raveendhana (@raveendhana)
6th July 2012, 16:50
but do we need that kind of lottery? personally i dont want rain this season, except in some of boring the races like bharain or monaco.
Colossal Squid (@colossal-squid)
6th July 2012, 17:23
I’m with you on that – I’d much prefer to have a dry race so we could get some definitive answers on whether Red Bull’s Valencia pace is here to stay, whether Ferrari are strong enough to consistently challenge the frontrunners and whether Button’s got his groove back. This year is exciting and suspenseful enough without rain! And isn’t that a great thing to be able to say?
Himmat Singh.
6th July 2012, 16:27
Heikki Kovalainen is going guns! P14 then now P7. At this rate, he’s in contention for a podium place surely, especially if the race is wet.
tflb1 (@)
6th July 2012, 16:49
Er… no. I hope that comment was tongue-in-cheek. Friday times mean nothing, especially when it is as wet as this.
Postreader
6th July 2012, 17:01
I’m 99% sure it was lol, I don’t know what’s up with the interpretation skills of F1 fanatics today.
xjr15jaaag (@xjr15jaaag)
6th July 2012, 18:36
I personally want him to get a podium.
May be slightly unrealistic, but here’s hoping
AdrianMorse (@adrianmorse)
6th July 2012, 17:26
Every race I’m hoping Senna will be the one to shine for Williams, but he keeps making it hard for himself (small typo in there as well: damager).
With regard to Vettel, I noticed in the morning he was a bit tentative, too, as he was doing 1m59s while Webber was going round in 1m56-57s. I’m not sure there’s much to read there, because Q3 is the session where Vettel really delivers the goods. Of course, he has to reach Q3 first.
Eleanore (@leucocrystal)
6th July 2012, 21:36
Same, though honestly, I was just waiting for someone to crash. Unfortunately, he was the first to do it today (though not the only one, as Alonso showed near the end). He’d even said on the radio he felt it was too wet to be out there. I wish they hadn’t sent him back out, but considering he had no FP1 (not that he would’ve missed much there either), and hasn’t driven Silverstone since 2008 (with a different layout), I do understand his wanting to run. Just ended up being too risky today.
Ryan Pearce-Thomas (@fingerboy)
6th July 2012, 18:16
I must say that I am starting to like Lewis Hamilton, I find myself wanting him to win the championship and this silverstone race, let’s hope he can win here like he did in 2008.
javlinsharp (@javlinsharp)
6th July 2012, 20:21
I know the times are skewed because of testing setups, fuel load/consumption, aero balance, brake bias and so many other factors.
I just dont think Wet practice times should be tossed out so readily.
Remember folks. F1 races in the rain too. It is foolhardy to discount wet testing for this very reason
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
6th July 2012, 21:23
Sauber have probably been the most exciting team today. Braving the conditions and making the most of it. I really hope their hard work pays off for them in the race and qualifying, they may end up being better equipped than most if things stay as dismal as they are, I’m sure they will,