#BritishGP FP2 Report: @lance_stroll quickest as @alex_albon crashes out. #F1

BWT Racing Point’s Lance Stroll was fastest in the British GP FP2 and ahead of Red Bull Racing’s Alexander Albon who suffered a heavy crash in the mid-way point during the session.

Mercedes duo Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton ended the day third and fifth respectively – with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc sandwiched in-between the pairing taking fourth.

Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen wound up 14th quickest and encountered an angry confrontation with Haas F1 Team’s Romain Grosjean whilst on his soft qualifying simulation run.

As the heat continued to swelter Silverstone, it took a while for the drivers to hit the track running in the hour and a half long session.

Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo, Grosjean, and Alfa Romeo Racing duo Antonio Giovinazzi and Kimi Raikkonen all enjoyed brief spells at the top of the time-sheets during the early running before Leclerc took his Ferrari to the top, posting a 1:28.773 on the medium compounds.

But shortly after, the Monegasque-youngster took a spin after losing the rear of his SF1000 racer at the exit of Loop corner as he put on the gas and lost it just after the left-hand corner.

Verstappen and Albon then relegated off the top on their medium stints before Bottas jumped into the P1 slot on the yellow-marked C2 rubber (which was the hardest compounds for the first three rounds thus-far) setting a 1:27.731.

Near the 45th minute mark of the session, drivers were switching to the red side-walled softer tyres for their qualifying simulation runs, lead by Albon, who went back to the top with a 1:27.363 and moved the Thai-Briton 0.3 seconds clear of Bottas’ best effort on the harder compound.

But Stroll eclipsed that benchmark with a 1:27.274, despite clipping the grass with his RP20 racer’s front-left wheel as he exited Chapel corner and blasted along the Hangar Straight.

Verstappen was flying early on his soft tyre run, but came across a slow moving Haas of Grosjean – through the Maggots and Becketts complex of corners, and the Dutchman waved furiously at the Frenchman.

Grosjean labelled the Red Bull driver as “childish” over the radio.

The Mercedes pairing fitted the softer rubber but were unable to match Stroll and Albon’s efforts with Bottas taking third and 0.157 seconds off P1 while Hamilton was a further 0.15 seconds adrift.

Their runs however, were interrupted halfway through the session when Albon lost the rear of his Honda-powered RB16 racer as he hit the apex at the right-hand Stowe corner, whilst correcting a snap of over-steer, his car went left and around, sending the Thai-Briton into the barriers.

The heavy shunt saw the rear and left-hand side of the car damaged, which brought out the red flags and Albon did not return to action after being picked up by the medical car.

After the 10-minute stoppage, the action continued as Hamilton headed out again on the softs.

But the reigning World Champion aborted his lap after running his F1 W11 EQ Power+ racer deep into Brooklands and then after the field switched over to do long race-run simulations.

McLaren’s Carlos Sainz finished sixth and in-front of Racing Point’s Nico Hulkenberg, who was 0.636 seconds adrift of team-mate Stroll’s British GP FP2 benchmark time in his second practice outing for the Silverstone-squad in-place of regular Sergio Perez.

Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly who, along with McLaren’s Lando Norris had their early lap-times invalidated for running wide at the exit of Stowe corner, was eighth with Ricciardo and Raikkonen completing the top ten.

Verstappen complained of under-steer over the radio during his initial run, and the Milton Keynes-based outfit spent some time working on his RB16 after Albon’s shunt, but the encounter with Grosjean meant his best effort was a 1:28.390, which was posted on a set of mediums.

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel horrible Friday continued as he missed a huge amount of FP2 running while the team changed the pedals in his SF1000 racer after reporting something loose in his cockpit.

This saw the German remain near the bottom of the time-sheets with just eight tours completed until more than half an hour of the session had past, after he missed the majority of FP1 due to an intercooler issue, which was fixed just in-time for the afternoon.

Vettel finally made it out on track afterwards, running the soft compounds, with the four-time World Champion having a scruffy lap – which included running wide at the exit of Woodcote and through Chapel corner, scattering gravel and grass at those respective points – meaning he wound up a low 18th.

Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen took 19th and ahead of Williams Racing’s Nicholas Latifi, who also spun at Stowe corner during the closing stages of FP2, with the Canadian brought up the rear.

You can see the full Formula 1 Rolex British Grand Prix 2020 Free Practice 2 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2020/races/1048/great-britain/practice-2.html

Catch up on what happened in Free Practice 1 here: #BritishGP FP1 Report: @Max33Verstappen fastest, #Vettel suffers issue. #F1

Read this weekend’s Formula 1 Pirelli British Grand Prix 2020 Preview at the link: #F1 @Pirelli #BritishGP 2020 Preview. @SilverstoneCircuit @F1