» Hamilton stays on top in Texas

Lewis Hamilton closed out Friday’s track action at the United States Formula 1 Grand Prix on top of the timesheets, backing up his fastest lap time in FP1 by being quickest in the afternoon’s second practice session at the Circuit of the Americas.

After setting the pace in the wet/dry opening session, the Englishman clocked a 1:34.568 on Ultra Soft Pirelli tyres. The time was quicker than the lap he managed to claim pole position at the Texas circuit last year.

The Mercedes driver’s closest challenger came from Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen. The Dutch youngster finished four-tenths of a second slower on his best lap, but could well have gone quicker were it not for a wild moment at the second-last corner.

Sebastian Vettel, who has to finish inside the top-five this weekend to stop Hamilton from claiming a fourth World Championship title, finished the session third-fastest in his Ferrari. The German had an untidy session, complaining of a “jelly” like front end in his SF70-H as well as taking a trip through the Turn 19 gravel trap during the 90-minute session.

Hamilton’s nearest rival was Max Verstappen, who finished four-tenths adrift, but would have been closer without a wild moment at the penultimate corner.

The fastest three drivers’ respective teammates – Valtteri Bottas, Daniel Ricciardo and Kimi Räikkönen – were all considerably slower and claimed fourth through sixth on the time sheets at the end of the session.

McLaren’s Fernando Alonso finished an impressive seventh-fastest ahead of Williams’ Felipe Massa, while the Force India pairing of Sergio Pérez and Esteban Ocon mirrored their FP1 performance by rounding out the top ten positions.

The Renault pairing of Carlos Sainz Jr and Nico Hülkenberg made late switches to Ultra Soft rubber to vault themselves to the fringes of the top ten. The pair was separated by just 0.005 seconds on the stopwatch.

Daniil Kvyat had his first outing in the Toro Rosso STR12 since crashing out of the Singapore Grand Prix and placed thirteenth-fastest. He finished comfortably clear of rookie teammate Brendon Hartley, who focused on longer runs in the session as he tried to understand his new surroundings.

The two Haas Ferraris argued over track position during the session, with Kevin Magnussen outpacing teammate Romain Grosjean. The latter finished slowest of all in the session and was the only driver not to post his fastest time on the Ultra Soft rubber.

McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne and Williams’ Lance Stroll featured towards the bottom of the timesheets ahead of the two Saubers of Pascal Wehrlein and Marcus Ericsson.

Saturday’s final practice session at the Circuit of the Americas will begin at 11:00 local time (GMT -5).

2017 FORMULA 1 UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX – FREE PRACTICE 2 RESULTS
	Driver	Team / Entry	Time	Tyre	Laps
1.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1W08	1:34.668		26
2.	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing Tag Heuer RB13	1:35.065		30
3.	Sebastian Vettel	Scuderia Ferrari SF70H	1:35.192		11
4.	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1W08	1:35.279		39
5.	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing Tag Heuer RB13	1:35.463		24
6.	Kimi Räikkönen	Scuderia Ferrari SF70H	1:35.514		29
7.	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Honda MCL32	1:36.304		28
8.	Felipe Massa	Williams Martini Racing Mercedes FW40	1:36.460		30
9.	Sergio Pérez	Sahara Force India Mercedes VJM10	1:36.481		28
10.	Esteban Ocon	Sahara Force India Mercedes VJM10	1:36.490		34
11.	Carlos Sainz Jr	Renault Sport F1 Team RS17	1:36.529		30
12.	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault Sport F1 Team RS17	1:36.534		18
13.	Daniil Kvyat	Scuderia Toro Rosso Renault STR12	1:36.761		40
14.	Kevin Magnussen	Haas F1 Team Ferrari VF-17	1:37.285		17
15.	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren-Honda MCL32	1:37.463		31
16.	Lance Stroll	Williams Martini Racing Mercedes FW40	1:37.788		27
17.	Brendon Hartley	Scuderia Toro Rosso Renault STR12	1:37.987		41
18.	Pascal Wehrlein	Sauber F1 Team Ferrari C36	1:38.165		35
19.	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber F1 Team Ferrari C36	1:38.262		22
20.	Romain Grosjean	Haas F1 Team Ferrari VF-17	1:38.387		26