Sebastian Vettel put Ferrari ahead in the second practice session at Silverstone but he wasn’t able to improve on the best time Lewis Hamilton set in the morning.
As track temperatures rose to over 50C the Mercedes drivers were unable to replicate their times from the cooler morning session. Vettel produced a best time of 1’27.552 on the soft tyres which put him within a tenth of a second of Hamilton’s first practice benchmark.On the hot track drivers found the tyres gave their best on the first flying lap. Having lost time on his first run, Kimi Raikkonen ended up almost half a second off his team mate with his subsequent lap, and was separated from his team mate by the two Mercedes. He also had a near-miss when a Williams was waved out of the pits in front of him.
Romain Grosjean damaged his chassis when he crashed in first practice, which meant he was unable to take part in the second session. And within a few minutes of the session beginning another driver was ruled out.
Max Verstappen was on his first flying lap, running the hard tyres, when his Red Bull snapped sideways at the exist of Luffield. He hit the barrier nose-first, which spun the back of the car into the barrier, causing further damage. The session was red-flagged while his car was recovered.
That left Daniel Ricciardo as the sole Red Bull in the session, and he ended up over eight-tenths of a second down on Vettel.
Fernando Alonso was next-quickest, bringing some encouragement to McLaren following their unpromising start to first practice. Nico Hulkenberg put his Renault in seventh ahead of the two Force Indias and Charles Leclerc’s Sauber.
Pos. | No. | Driver | Car | Best lap | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1’27.552 | 35 | |
2 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’27.739 | 0.187 | 32 |
3 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1’27.909 | 0.357 | 29 |
4 | 7 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1’28.045 | 0.493 | 34 |
5 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’28.408 | 0.856 | 31 |
6 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren-Renault | 1’29.306 | 1.754 | 31 |
7 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | 1’29.354 | 1.802 | 35 |
8 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Force India-Mercedes | 1’29.467 | 1.915 | 33 |
9 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 1’29.522 | 1.970 | 32 |
10 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’29.557 | 2.005 | 30 |
11 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Renault | 1’29.563 | 2.011 | 36 |
12 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas-Ferrari | 1’29.617 | 2.065 | 33 |
13 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso-Honda | 1’29.831 | 2.279 | 16 |
14 | 9 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’30.046 | 2.494 | 32 |
15 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Williams-Mercedes | 1’30.069 | 2.517 | 34 |
16 | 35 | Sergey Sirotkin | Williams-Mercedes | 1’30.103 | 2.551 | 36 |
17 | 2 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren-Renault | 1’30.121 | 2.569 | 31 |
18 | 28 | Brendon Hartley | Toro Rosso-Honda | 1’30.404 | 2.852 | 35 |
Second practice visual gaps
Sebastian Vettel – 1’27.552
+0.187 Lewis Hamilton – 1’27.739
+0.357 Valtteri Bottas – 1’27.909
+0.493 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’28.045
+0.856 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’28.408
+1.802 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’29.354
+1.915 Esteban Ocon – 1’29.467
+1.970 Sergio Perez – 1’29.522
+2.005 Charles Leclerc – 1’29.557
+2.011 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’29.563
+2.065 Kevin Magnussen – 1’29.617
+2.279 Pierre Gasly – 1’29.831
+2.494 Marcus Ericsson – 1’30.046
+2.517 Lance Stroll – 1’30.069
+2.551 Sergey Sirotkin – 1’30.103
+2.569 Stoffel Vandoorne – 1’30.121
+2.852 Brendon Hartley – 1’30.404
Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.
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hahostolze (@hahostolze)
6th July 2018, 15:37
So the two best drivers of last weekend begin the next one by crashing. Lovely.
Robbie (@robbie)
6th July 2018, 15:48
Thankfully for Max this was not in FP3.
Adrian Hancox (@ahxshades)
6th July 2018, 16:13
Yet @robbie
Pjotr (@pietkoster)
7th July 2018, 11:44
Ves said he loses a second on the straight compared to Ferrari and Mercedes. So pushing the car to the limit on the hardest tires possible (to find out what time differences this makes) and going for a one stop strategy is the only option. They knew the risk so they let him do this with gearbox normally used for training. It is soooo simple.
MG1982 (@mg1982)
6th July 2018, 15:45
Verstappen crashed again, uh?!? Ahahahahaaaaaaaaa!
MG1982 (@mg1982)
6th July 2018, 15:48
Somebody must start counting his crashes, I think we have a world beater talent here, probably the youngest too!
Robbie (@robbie)
6th July 2018, 15:51
Good thing he also knows how to win races.
MG1982 (@mg1982)
6th July 2018, 16:01
Yeah, by bumping others wide/off-track! He obviously won’t be a great champ, way too many crashes and contacts with other drivers. Few exceptional performances over the years can’t make up for all this “wrongdoing” he keeps collecting every race.
Jeffrey (@jeffreyj)
6th July 2018, 16:07
He does know how to win races and he is great to watch when he’s on it, but this has got to stop. Being erratic for a few weeks, then totally on it for a few weeks and then crash again simply isn’t good enough. If he want’s to be a champion, he needs to stop crashing and be on top of it mentally, every single weekend.
Markos
6th July 2018, 23:37
In MotoGP, Marquez won a few championships driving far more risky than Verstappen ;)
Just for your perspective…
Andy Mail (@amail)
6th July 2018, 15:59
Check out http://crashstappen.com/
MG1982 (@mg1982)
6th July 2018, 16:03
Ahahahaaa! He obviously wins this trophy… Deserved!
Dennis (@dennis65)
6th July 2018, 16:31
Your hate is getting ludicrous and not only yours.
Ben (@x-f1-x)
6th July 2018, 19:13
http://crashstappen.com
Azmo (@azmo)
6th July 2018, 17:50
Pitchforks out!! There you go mate let it all out
Jere (@jerejj)
6th July 2018, 15:49
Crashtappen (as well as Crashjean) strikes again.
Adam (@rocketpanda)
6th July 2018, 15:50
The split between Ferrari/Mercedes/Red Bull to everyone else is pretty shocking here.
George.be
6th July 2018, 16:47
14 cars within 1.1 second (1.2%), never been as close in the middle, but the gap between 5 and 6 is 0.9s (1%)
Joao (@johnmilk)
6th July 2018, 15:53
The gap from Ricciardo to Hulk is immense. It shows how important it is to have a good car all around to perform at Silverstone.
I feel however the tyres will be again a huge talking point this weekend
Tim M (@tim-m)
6th July 2018, 16:05
@keithcollantine Unless my eyes deceive me; Alonso is missing from the visual gap. Still though, there’s almost a second between Ricciardo and Hulkenberg.
Archit (@architjain07)
6th July 2018, 17:02
@tim-m– Alonso is indeed missing! It is Alonso who is best of the rest not Hulkenberg!
Mashiat (@mashiat)
6th July 2018, 15:54
Huh, didn’t know Alonso had quit F1 already (this could look silly in a few minutes).
Esploratore (@esploratore)
6th July 2018, 23:11
It still currently makes sense!
Johns
6th July 2018, 15:58
I don’t get the gearbox rule. Horner said Max did not have his race gearbox in the car when he crashed. So this implies the mechanics are changing gearboxes to preserve the race one. So what is the purpose of this gearbox rule? It does not “save budget”. Seems to needlessly cause team drama. Why not just drop it and allow the teams to do as they will. With the gear box ratios being fixed for the season, I think there is no reason to have this gearbox rule anymore..
Jeffrey (@jeffreyj)
6th July 2018, 16:03
He was using an old one, as far as I understand, so that doesn’t affect the total amount of gearboxes used I guess.
Jeffrey (@jeffreyj)
6th July 2018, 16:10
Does anyone have the average longrun laptimes and the tires they were running?
javier javier (@j3d89)
6th July 2018, 16:36
i would like to know about long runs, please, im not interested in quali fake times, we all know is going to go down a second or more in the q3
javier javier (@j3d89)
6th July 2018, 17:07
@jeffreyj according to another website, both mercedes and ferrari were frequently driving in the 1:33s while redbull with ricciardo rarely did, he mostly was in the 1:34s
Jeffrey (@jeffreyj)
6th July 2018, 19:53
@j3d89 Tnx. Does that site say if they were all on the same tires for those runs?
javier javier (@j3d89)
6th July 2018, 20:26
@jeffreyj Sorry nope,but I suspect it was on the medium tires, yellow, I didn’t see the top drivers using the softest
javier javier (@j3d89)
6th July 2018, 23:05
sorry i mixed the colors haha they did use the softest… i saw a blue or purple color and thought it was the ultras.. but that was the hard tire (ice blue).. but yea…race simulation was on medium(white color not yellow like i said) and the fastest laps on soft(the yellow)
markp
6th July 2018, 16:47
Pirelli are ridiculous. After Merc were out done in chassis and engine by Ferrari they protested everything on the Ferrari and had Pirelli make them special tyres. It worked in 2 of the 3 races the Merc special tyres were used but if FP2 is in any way representative of what happens in the rest of the weekend then Pirelli need to sort something out, maybe another compound over night that everyone has to use that suits Merc even more. Merc are trying so hard their cars broke last race. Come on Pirelli do your bit.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
6th July 2018, 23:14
Yes, it’s so likely that this + france + spain results will make mercedes or hamilton win the championship and that either of them wouldn’t have happened with regular tyres, I don’t really like this changing the tyres to favour one team, and I’m not really a hamilton hater, I just hate changes like this to favour not a random team, but the one that has been dominating the past years and even in 2017 brought the overall best car.
Imagine FIA helping ferrari win the 2005 title instead of changing tyre rules to damage them like they did.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
6th July 2018, 17:13
A whole second between the top 6th and the rest. Depressing
ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
6th July 2018, 17:29
We could focus on World Cup quarter finals not qualification tomorrow then.
ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
6th July 2018, 17:32
Is Alonso really that good? Or Vandoorne is actually no better than Ericsson?
Niedle (@niedle)
6th July 2018, 17:39
@ruliemaulana Only Mclaren can know since they constantly give all the new bits to Alonso so there is a car deficit half of the races. Since they favor Alonso so much, it is difficult to judge to be honest.
De
6th July 2018, 18:56
It’s McLaren you are talking about, unless they got lucky, I highly doubt that their new bits bring that much difference, or they wouldn’t be in such situation in the first place.
McLaren didn’t know what they are doing even when they were winning, Whitmarsch admitted they don’t know why the 2012 MP4-27 was so fast, they had the wind tunnel discrepancy even then, only the MP4-27 was better than the wind tunnel model, which leads Whitmarsch claimed that the car “over delivered”, but he even went on to claim that whoever will build a fast car, it’s not because of their good decisions and choices, but because they luck into a zone. So now I guess they never bothered to solve the isseue. Just look how Red Bull lucked into the zone for almost 10 years now, it’s insanity that Whitmarsch ever thought he should come back to McLaren.
George
7th July 2018, 10:12
What McLaren does know is that after testing the preferential driver gets his pick on the parts to be used on his car, and even the spare parts. Stoffel can use the leftovers.
Fridays testing is divided between the drivers: Alo does setup work for this race, Vandoorne does validation of on track performance vs simulation… Alo will claim he beats Vandoorne in Qualifying in every race, but omit the 13 reasons why :p
Alonso claims not to be the boss at Mclaren, but fails to tell that the boss does what Alo says :)
Thomson (@fish123)
6th July 2018, 17:41
Normally Ferrari tend to sandbag more than Mercedes & despite this Vettel goes quickest…. Looks like ferrari maybe the team to beat this weekend.
& about Verstappen…. its only practice… infact practice is about finding the limit of the car which Max is doing. He’ll be back on it tomorrow
Vaios (@vaiosp)
6th July 2018, 20:04
Alonso is missing from the visual gaps graph!
Dave
24th January 2021, 16:25
“De Crasheris”: He earned that nickname, so I’m fine with that.
“Crashtor”: He earned that nickname, so I’m fine with that too.
“Crashstappen”: Well…