Hamilton quickest as Mercedes set pace in second practice

29 comments on “Hamilton quickest as Mercedes set pace in second practice”

1. 

   AlanD
   29th February 2024, 16:28

   It is good to see these times are much closer together than in FP1. Anyone know if Norris had a problem? He did roughly the same nuber of laps as everyone else. Maybe he just didn’t do a quali sim run and everyone else did.
2. 

   Ken
   29th February 2024, 16:30

   Messed up his qualy simulation lap
   1. 

      AlanD
      29th February 2024, 16:34

      Thanks. That is a key detail to making sense of those times, surprised I couldn’t find it in the article.
   2. 

      Nick T.
      29th February 2024, 18:12

      It is confirmed engineers also did not allow RBR or RB to run even close to full power. Less known, but highly suspected is that SF was also way dialed back on power.
      1. 

         Anon. A Mouse
         29th February 2024, 20:12

         Is it confirmed or pure speculation that Mercedes were turned up on power? So far it looks like speculation. On the F1TV broadcast I believe Palmer mentioned that the speed traps weren’t that dissimilar among the teams. Something that gets lost in the shuffle is that due to the limitations of the 2022 and 2023 Mercedes cars, the engine was rarely – if ever – turned up to full power. So we might be seeing this new Mercedes at its baseline.
         1. 

            Yellow Baron
            29th February 2024, 21:50

            Why would they not turn the engines to full power due to inefficient aero? It would make more sense to turn them all the way up
      2. 

         kpcart
         1st March 2024, 1:59

         oh stop it. it is just practise. wait for qualifying. all assumptions until then.
3. 

   Zann (@zann)
   29th February 2024, 16:30

   Max was an easy 0.4 faster all through the long run, sorry!
   1. 

      AlanD
      29th February 2024, 16:35

      Zann, thanks, another helpful detail which could have been usefully included.
   2. 

      IPBA
      29th February 2024, 16:37

      What are you sorry for? RB20 is still the faster race car and Max with his skill is using it to the max (excuse the pun). The other just need to work harder. Or is your sorry a sly sarcastic remark against fans of other drivers?
      1. 

         kpcart
         1st March 2024, 2:00

         yes rude comment. they are just as fast as him.
   3. 

      Ben
      29th February 2024, 16:38

      Yeah, the RedBull race pace looks next level. I expect they had plenty of fuel in the tank on their “low fuel” runs too.

      Let’s see how close the others can get to RedBull.
   4. 

      Dex
      29th February 2024, 17:20

      Yet here they state that “Mercedes sets pace.” So unprofessional and misleading.
      1. 

         grat
         29th February 2024, 17:23

         Absolutely. How dare people report the times on the timesheet as if they were meaningful!
      2. 

         Craig
         29th February 2024, 18:03

         The pace is the fastest time set in a session and Mercedes set it, so it’s not unprofessional or misleading.
4. 

   Hendy (@hendy)
   29th February 2024, 16:48

   Attn: Keith

   Can you please add a column to the practice/qualy results with the type of tyres used?
   1. 

      iba
      29th February 2024, 17:03

      and maybe the ‘long run pace’?
   2. 

      grat
      29th February 2024, 17:24

      Just about everyone was on Soft.
5. 

   Dantera87
   29th February 2024, 16:55

   From what I remember, LIberty showed that Max’s long run pace was 36.6, whereas Hamilton’s was 37.1. I might be wrong though.
   1. 

      Ben
      29th February 2024, 17:06

      That’s what the graphic said their average stint times were. Verstappen did around 12 laps and only just started to drop into the low 37’s. Hamilton did 9 laps and only 3 were in the 36’s with 2 cooldown laps in the 38’s. Overall no one is getting close to matching the RedBull race pace. Surprisingly Alonso was actually the closest over the stint, but still some off.
      1. 

         Dantera87
         29th February 2024, 17:11

         Yeah, exactly. That 6th place by Max is such a far cry from reality, or at least I hope it is.
      2. 

         mystic one (@mysticus)
         29th February 2024, 20:39

         also mercedes were seen removing some sand sacks :) from the car after each long run trials… we dont know for sure what were inside each drivers’ sand sacks (pun intended)…
         we ll see at end of saturday who are geese and who are asparagus.
   2. 

      kpcart
      1st March 2024, 2:01

      how much fuel did each car have? what engine setting?
6. 

   Jere (@jerejj)
   29th February 2024, 16:56

   I wonder how did Bottas manage to jump start by four seconds.
   1. 

      AlanD
      29th February 2024, 17:01

      Jere, I imagine it was a communication error with the engineer, with Bottas thinking the session had already started and busy looking at the dash, and not realising he needed to be looking for a red light green light. Easily done. It isn’t as if he was trying to make a jump start, so i hope the FIA will be lenient, and not so a trend for penalising every inconsequential error.
      1. 

         Jere (@jerejj)
         1st March 2024, 6:12

         & ultimately only a driving reprimand, which is fair.
7. 

   PeterG
   29th February 2024, 17:12

   It was noted on the sky coverage that Red Bull’s top end speed wasn’t that different between his low & high fuel runs which suggests Red Bull never turned there engines up while everyone else did going by the speed trap data.

   If right then yhey still have a few tenths in hand.
8. 

   MichaelN
   29th February 2024, 19:21

   Representative times or not, the Mercedes looks pretty cool from the front.

   Hopefully it’s a bit closer than last year.
   1. 

      MacLeod (@macleod)
      1st March 2024, 7:57

      That is for sure!

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