The Mercedes-AMG team continued its dominant form in Friday practice for this weekend’s 70th Anniversary Grand Prix, with the afternoon session seeing Lewis Hamilton turn the tables on teammate Valtteri Bottas after being pipped by the Finnish driver in FP1.
The gap between the pair amounted to less than two-tenths of a second, but once again they were considerably quicker than everyone else. This time the charge was led by Daniel Ricciardo, who impressively hauled his Renault to the third-fastest time in the 90-minute session – the Australian was, however, over 0.8 seconds adrift although confident that he could be a podium contender this weekend.
Conversely, it was a difficult FP2 session for the seemingly luckless Sebastian Vettel. The Ferrari driver suffered a litany of mechanical dramas last weekend and barely had the pace to scrape into the points, and the afternoon’s running saw the German run off the pace before his power unit failed and dropped oil down the old start/finish straight. He was classified fourteenth-fastest, while teammate Charles Leclerc was seventh-quickest but 1.2 seconds off the pace of the Mercedes’.
Max Verstappen was fourth-fastest in his Red Bull Racing Honda, ahead of the two Racing Point Mercedes’ of Lance Stroll and Nico Hülkenberg. In an ultra-close midfield, Hülkenberg was only half a second faster than Romain Grosjean’s Haas which was fifteenth-fastest.
After a poor showing in FP1, McLaren showed improved pace in the afternoon session with Carlos Sainz Jr and Lando Norris eighth- and ninth-fastest. Esteban Ocon rounded out the top-ten, putting all four Renault-powered cars in the top-ten.
| EMIRATES FORMULA 1 70TH ANNIVERSARY GRAND PRIX 2020 – FREE PRACTICE SESSION 2 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Driver | Team / Entry | Time | Gap | Laps | ||||
| 1. | Lewis Hamilton |  |
 |
Mercedes-AMG F1 Team W11 |  |
1:25.606 | 22 | |
| 2. | Valtteri Bottas |  |
|
Mercedes-AMG F1 Team W11 | |
1:25.782 | + 0.176 | 22 |
| 3. | Daniel Ricciardo |  |
 |
Renault F1 Team R.S.20 |  |
1:26.421 | + 0.815 | 29 |
| 4. | Max Verstappen |  |
 |
Red Bull Racing RB16 |  |
1:26.437 | + 0.831 | 15 |
| 5. | Lance Stroll |  |
 |
Racing Point F1 Team RP20 | |
1:26.501 | + 0.895 | 24 |
| 6. | Nico Hülkenberg |  |
|
Racing Point F1 Team RP20 | |
1:26.746 | + 1.140 | 26 |
| 7. | Charles Leclerc |  |
 |
Scuderia Ferrari SF1000 |  |
1:26.812 | + 1.206 | 32 |
| 8. | Carlos Sainz Jr. |  |
 |
McLaren F1 Team MCL35 | |
1:26.867 | + 1.261 | 26 |
| 9. | Lando Norris | |
|
McLaren F1 Team MCL35 | |
1:26.918 | + 1.312 | 24 |
| 10. | Esteban Ocon |  |
|
Renault F1 Team R.S.20 | |
1:26.928 | + 1.322 | 25 |
| 11. | Alexander Albon |  |
|
Red Bull Racing RB16 | |
1:26.960 | + 1.354 | 25 |
| 12. | Daniil Kvyat |  |
 |
Scuderia AlfaTauri AT01 | |
1:27.002 | + 1.396 | 33 |
| 13. | Pierre Gasly | |
|
Scuderia AlfaTauri AT01 | |
1:27.128 | + 1.522 | 31 |
| 14. | Sebastian Vettel | |
|
Scuderia Ferrari SF1000 | |
1:27.198 | + 1.592 | 30 |
| 15. | Romain Grosjean | |
 |
Haas F1 Team VF-20 | |
1:27.294 | + 1.688 | 28 |
| 16. | George Russell | |
 |
Williams Racing FW43 | |
1:27.320 | + 1.714 | 31 |
| 17. | Kimi Räikkönen | |
 |
Alfa Romeo Racing C39 | |
1:27.535 | + 1.929 | 30 |
| 18. | Kevin Magnussen |  |
|
Haas F1 Team VF-20 | |
1:27.582 | + 1.976 | 28 |
| 19. | Nicholas Latifi | |
|
Williams Racing FW43 | |
1:27.683 | + 2.077 | 32 |
| 20. | Antonio Giovinazzi |  |
|
Alfa Romeo Racing C39 | |
1:27.955 | + 2.349 | 26 |
Image via Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team
Richard Bailey
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