GP Gran Bretagna, prove libere venerdì–14/07/2017

British Grand Prix: Bottas pips Hamilton in second Friday practice

Valtteri Bottas stayed on top in second practice for Formula 1’s British Grand Prix, beating Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton by only 0.047 seconds.

Bottas’s benchmark from the morning was beaten around 15 minutes into the afternoon session at Silverstone, as Hamilton posted a 1m28.780s on soft tyres before quickly improving to a 1m28.543s.

That put Hamilton a full six tenths clear of the field, led by Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, until Bottas switched from mediums to super-softs at the 30-minute mark and set a new best of 1m28.496s.

When Hamilton took super-softs, he ran off the track at Chapel and told his engineers he feared he had damaged the car in the process. His soft-tyre time still kept him in second place.

With teams shifting their focus towards longer runs for the latter half of the session, Bottas’s best effort stood as the quickest time of the day.

Raikkonen was third-quickest, going 0.338s slower than compatriot Bottas on his super-soft run and 0.128 faster than the second Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel.

There was late drama for Raikkonen when he suffered a moment of snap oversteer at Becketts and span into the gravel, although he got going again without outside assistance.

Max Verstappen was best of the Red Bull drivers in fifth, 0.602s off the pace on super-softs, while team-mate Daniel Ricciardo was sixth, nearly half a second down on the sister car on the same tyre.

Nico Hulkenberg, Felipe Massa, Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon completed the top 10, all using super-softs, with Williams driver Massa spinning at Chapel late in the session after setting his best time.

Massa also attracted the attention of the stewards for impeding Verstappen, having passed the Red Bull driver around the outside at Club while both drivers were on long runs.

Carlos Sainz Jr had a major off-track excursion at the Maggotts/Becketts complex at the very start of the session, which consigned the Toro Rosso driver to the pits until the final 40 minutes.

He emerged to set the 11th quickest time, ahead of team-mate Daniil Kvyat in 12th.

Renault’s Jolyon Palmer also had a spin at Brooklands, ending up 18th ahead of only the two Saubers.

PRACTICE TWO RESULTS:

Pos	Driver	Car	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1m28.496s	–	31
2	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1m28.543s	0.047s	35
3	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1m28.828s	0.332s	36
4	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1m28.956s	0.460s	36
5	Max Verstappen	Red Bull/Renault	1m29.098s	0.602s	32
6	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull/Renault	1m29.586s	1.090s	35
7	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	1m29.936s	1.440s	37
8	Felipe Massa	Williams/Mercedes	1m30.006s	1.510s	36
9	Fernando Alonso	McLaren/Honda	1m30.238s	1.742s	28
10	Esteban Ocon	Force India/Mercedes	1m30.383s	1.887s	42
11	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso/Renault	1m30.555s	2.059s	26
12	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso/Renault	1m30.562s	2.066s	34
13	Sergio Perez	Force India/Mercedes	1m30.624s	2.128s	43
14	Romain Grosjean	Haas/Ferrari	1m30.661s	2.165s	33
15	Lance Stroll	Williams/Mercedes	1m30.695s	2.199s	37
16	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren/Honda	1m30.782s	2.286s	31
17	Kevin Magnussen	Haas/Ferrari	1m30.835s	2.339s	33
18	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	1m30.879s	2.383s	25
19	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber/Ferrari	1m31.616s	3.120s	27
20	Pascal Wehrlein	Sauber/Ferrari	1m31.929s	3.433s	30

Da Autosport.com

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Bottas sets British GP practice pace as Vettel tries F1’s shield

Valtteri Bottas set the pace in opening practice for the British Grand Prix as Sebastian Vettel became the first Formula 1 driver to trial the shield cockpit protection device.

Bottas used the soft compound Pirelli tyres to clock a 1m29.106s at an overcast Silverstone, 0.078 seconds quicker than Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

Championship leader Vettel, who was sixth fastest, headed out of the garage at the start of the session with the screen, which extends along the car’s nose in front of the driver, attached to his Ferrari.

He completed a single installation lap and then returned to the garage where Ferrari removed the device and switched attention to its weekend programme.

The medium compound – the hardest tyre available this weekend – was the rubber of choice for the early installation laps before Kimi Raikkonen fitted the super-softs and set the first time of the session with a 1m32.533s.

He traded quickest laps with the Red Bulls of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen, with Verstappen coming out on top initially.

Mercedes then sent Bottas out and he went quickest on the soft tyres with a 1m30.788s.

Hamilton lapped three tenths faster with his first real effort on the softs but his team-mate responded immediately to become the first driver to dip into the 1m29s.

Bottas continued to improve, gradually bringing his time down to a 1m29.106s, quicker than last year’s pole position time of 1m29.287s.

Red Bull emerged as Mercedes’ closest challenger, with Verstappen and Ricciardo third and fourth quickest respectively, but both their laps were set on the super-softs.

Raikkonen was the leading Ferrari in fifth, 1.031s off the pace but four tenths quicker than team-mate Vettel, who spun at Becketts and flatspotted his tyres.

Fernando Alonso, running the more-powerful ‘spec 3’ Honda engine in his McLaren again this weekend, was eighth quickest on the super-softs, a tenth behind Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat.

Felipe Massa, whose Williams team adopted a split approach with its upgrades after a troubled Austrian GP by running different configurations on his and Lance Stroll’s cars, was ninth.

Stoffel Vandoorne made it two McLarens in the top 10, just half-a-tenth slower than team-mate Alonso.

Antonio Giovinazzi borrowed Kevin Magnussen’s Haas and set the 17th quickest time, nearly half-a-second off team-mate Romain Grosjean.

Jolyon Palmer missed much of the opening part of the session with his Renault up on stands in the garage, but the team eventually got him back out and he ended up 18th quickest after 16 laps.

PRACTICE ONE RESULTS:

Pos	Driver	Car	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1m29.106s	–	29
2	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1m29.184s	0.078s	29
3	Max Verstappen	Red Bull/Renault	1m29.604s	0.498s	26
4	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull/Renault	1m29.942s	0.836s	19
5	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1m30.137s	1.031s	19
6	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1m30.517s	1.411s	19
7	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso/Renault	1m30.895s	1.789s	21
8	Fernando Alonso	McLaren/Honda	1m30.993s	1.887s	20
9	Felipe Massa	Williams/Mercedes	1m30.999s	1.893s	26
10	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren/Honda	1m31.041s	1.935s	27
11	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso/Renault	1m31.200s	2.094s	24
12	Esteban Ocon	Force India/Mercedes	1m31.210s	2.104s	32
13	Sergio Perez	Force India/Mercedes	1m31.297s	2.191s	34
14	Romain Grosjean	Haas/Ferrari	1m31.610s	2.504s	24
15	Lance Stroll	Williams/Mercedes	1m31.684s	2.578s	24
16	Antonio Giovinazzi	Haas/Ferrari	1m32.031s	2.925s	24
17	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	1m32.171s	3.065s	19
18	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	1m32.450s	3.344s	16
19	Pascal Wehrlein	Sauber/Ferrari	1m33.029s	3.923s	23
20	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber/Ferrari	1m33.399s	4.293s	26

Da Autosport.com