Silverstone FP2: Bottas edges Hamilton as Ferrari chase

Valtteri Bottas edged out Mercedes teammate and local hero Lewis Hamilton in the second free practice session of the British Grand Prix weekend, with Ferrari starting to show their hand albeit three tenths off the benchmark pace around Silverstone.

Bottas, which is clearly in inspired form, scorched around Silverstone in a best lap time of 1:28.496, which was a mere 0.047 of a second up on Hamilton’s best lap time in the 90 minutes afternoon session.

After keeping their powder dry in the morning practice, Ferrari were next best with Kimi Raikkonen third quickest and Sebastian Vettel fifth. But ominously for the Reds they were three tenths down on the Silver Arrows.

Report in progress…

British Grand Prix, Silverstone – Free Practice 2, Best Lap Times

POS	NO	DRIVER	CAR	TIME	GAP	LAPS
1	77	Valtteri Bottas	MERCEDES	1:28.496		31
2	44	Lewis Hamilton	MERCEDES	1:28.543	+0.047s	35
3	7	Kimi Räikkönen	FERRARI	1:28.828	+0.332s	36
4	5	Sebastian Vettel	FERRARI	1:28.956	+0.460s	36
5	33	Max Verstappen	RED BULL RACING TAG HEUER	1:29.098	+0.602s	32
6	3	Daniel Ricciardo	RED BULL RACING TAG HEUER	1:29.586	+1.090s	35
7	27	Nico Hulkenberg	RENAULT	1:29.936	+1.440s	37
8	19	Felipe Massa	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	1:30.006	+1.510s	36
9	14	Fernando Alonso	MCLAREN HONDA	1:30.238	+1.742s	28
10	31	Esteban Ocon	FORCE INDIA MERCEDES	1:30.383	+1.887s	42
11	55	Carlos Sainz	TORO ROSSO	1:30.555	+2.059s	26
12	26	Daniil Kvyat	TORO ROSSO	1:30.562	+2.066s	34
13	11	Sergio Perez	FORCE INDIA MERCEDES	1:30.624	+2.128s	43
14	8	Romain Grosjean	HAAS FERRARI	1:30.661	+2.165s	33
15	18	Lance Stroll	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	1:30.695	+2.199s	37
16	2	Stoffel Vandoorne	MCLAREN HONDA	1:30.782	+2.286s	31
17	20	Kevin Magnussen	HAAS FERRARI	1:30.835	+2.339s	33
18	30	Jolyon Palmer	RENAULT	1:30.879	+2.383s	25
19	9	Marcus Ericsson	SAUBER FERRARI	1:31.616	+3.120s	27
20	94	Pascal Wehrlein	SAUBER FERRARI	1:31.929	+3.433s	30

Read the full story at GRAND PRIX 247