FP2: Stroll fastest as Albon heavily crashes his RB16 into the barriers

F1 Grand Prix, GP Great-Britain, Silverstone Circuit

Racing Point driver Lance Stroll topped the afternoon practice session for the British Grand Prix ahead of Red Bull Racing's Alexander Albon who crashed heavily at Turn 15. Mercedes drivers showed dominant pace, but failed to top the session due to the red flag interruption.

Sebastian Vettel had his first proper outing in FP2 after he had to sit out the morning session due to problems related to the intercooler systems. Driving on the white-walled hard Pirelli, the German posted a time of 1’31.715 However, slow-motion footage revealed that his car was carrying a huge amount of flov-viz paint, indicating that Ferrari is adamant to carry on with its development work it had started in FP1.

Despite setting the pace in the early part of the session, Charles Leclerc had a spin in Turn 4, bringing out the yellow flags. The Monegasque’s lead did not last long though as Max Verstappen, the fastest man in the first practice took over the lead on the same medium compound.

Confirming Red Bull’s promising form at Silverstone, Alexander Albon managed to get to the top, beating his team-mate with a lap of 1’28.174. Despite their pace, both Red Bull drivers complained about the lack of front end grip.

When the utterly dominant team Mercedes joined the action, they showed once again their frightening pace. Valtteri Bottas immediately took over the lead with a time of 1’28.039 on the yellow-walled C2 compound. In contrast, his team-mate Lewis Hamilton was sent out on the hard rubber and set a time of 1’28.251 at the end of his first stint. In the meantime, Bottas improved his time to a 1’27.731.

Vettel’s bad day did not want to improve in the afternoon with the German claiming on the radio that „something is loose in the cockpit”. The German climbed out of his car and tried to find a remedy for the problem himself, inspecting the front of his SF1000. The Scuderia found out that the pedal was loose in the German’s car and elected to change to part.

With 53 minutes remaining on the clock, drivers began their qualifying simulation. Alexander Albon set a time of 1’27.364 to jump to the top of the timing sheets. Huge traffic built up on the track while drivers were busy with their low-fuel runs. On his fastest lap, Max Verstappen was held up by Romain Grosjean with the Dutchman being forced to slow down to avoid contact in the fast Becketts corner.

With 45 minutes left in the session, Albon crashed at Turn 15, named Stowe after losing the control over his Red Bull RB16. His car was heavily damaged at all corners with the incident bringing out the red flag.

When the session restarted, 35 minutes were left on the clock. Mercedes drivers were among the first ones to hit the track, but both Hamilton and Bottas made mistakes on their low-fuel soft-compound laps.

With 28 minutes left on the clock, Vettel rejoined the track action after losing the entire first practice and the majority of the second session. The German could only finish down in 18th position due to his lack of running. The last part of the session saw drivers working on their race pace.