FP2: Verstappen beats Sainz and Albon to top second practice at Silverstone

F1 Grand Prix, GP United Kingdom, Silverstone Circuit

Championship runaway leader Max Verstappen edged Carlos Sainz to the fastest time in the second practice at the British Grand Prix as Charles Leclerc hit technical trouble. F1Technical's senior writer Balázs Szabó reports on Free Practice 2.

After topping the opening practice earlier, Max Verstappen displayed remarkable speed in the second practice that was delayed due to the incident-packed Formula 2 qualifying session. The Dutchman set a 1m28.078s on Pirelli's red-walled soft tyres while his team mate Sergio Perez ended up fourth fastest, 0.264s off the pace.

Carlos Sainz put his Ferrari SF23 to P2 with his best lap only 22 thousands of a second adrift of Verstappen’s benchmark. However, the Spaniard was around half a second per lap slower than the Red Bulls on his high fuel run both on the soft and the medium compound.

Sainz’s teammate Charles Leclerc had a nightmare session after a technical issue prevented him from leaving the garage for the entirety of FP2. Ferrari mechanics attempted to repair the electrical issue, but the crew were unable to complete a fix in time and instead turned their attention to Saturday’s running.

Following a strong showing in the first practice, Alex Albon was once again third while his rookie team mate Logan Sargeant ended up fifth fastest as the Grove-based outfit caused a shock.

Despite debuting some changes to the front wing, Aston Martin drivers were unable to stay in touch with Red Bull and Ferrari as Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso ended up 6th and 10th quickest.

The midfield was extremely tightly matched with Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg taking 7th, Alpine racer Pierre Gasly finishing up 8th and Oscar Piastri setting the 9th quickest lap, meaning that seven different teams popped up in the top ten.

Mercedes had another quiet session as George Russell took 12th while Lewis Hamilton was placed 15th. However, the two home heros displayed eye-catching long run performance on the C3 compound in the dying phase of the session, indicating that there is much more to come from Mercedes on Sunday.

AlphaTauri brought up the rear of the field as Yuki Tsunoda and Nyck de Vries ended up 18th and 19h fastest. The Dutchman endured a scary moment after the chequered flag had flown as he suffered a sudden front-right puncture on his AlphaTauri.