Bottas edges Hamilton in second practice

2017 British Grand Prix second practice

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Valtteri Bottas remained on top in the second practice session at Silverstone but his team mate was threateningly close.

While Bottas established a new track record for the second time today with a 1’28.496 – over three seconds quicker than the best time from Friday last year – Lewis Hamilton was just 47 thousandths of a second slower.

British GP practice in pictures
Unlike Bottas, Hamilton set his best time on the soft tyre compound. He was over a tenth of a second quicker through the first sector of the lap on his qualifying simulation, but a mistake at Becketts spoiled his flying lap.

The Ferraris were much closer to the silver cars in the afternoon session. Kimi Raikkonen again led the way, this time just three-tenths of a second off the silver cars.

The Red Bull pair were next, Max Verstappen six-tenths of a second off the quickest Mercedes. Daniel Ricciardo had a near-miss in Becketts when his car almost snapped out of control on one of the quickest corners on the track.

Felipe Massa was one of those who did spin, on his way to the ninth-fastest time. Nico Hulkenberg declared himself happy with his Renault on his way to the eighth-best time. Like Massa, his team mate was well off his pace. Fernando Alonso’s McLaren completed the top ten.

Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
177Valtteri BottasMercedes1’28.49630
244Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’28.5430.04735
37Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’28.8280.33236
45Sebastian VettelFerrari1’28.9560.46036
533Max VerstappenRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’29.0980.60231
63Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’29.5861.09035
727Nico HulkenbergRenault1’29.9361.44037
819Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes1’30.0061.51036
914Fernando AlonsoMcLaren-Honda1’30.2381.74228
1031Esteban OconForce India-Mercedes1’30.3831.88742
1155Carlos Sainz JnrToro Rosso-Renault1’30.5552.05925
1226Daniil KvyatToro Rosso-Renault1’30.5622.06634
1311Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’30.6242.12843
148Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari1’30.6612.16532
1518Lance StrollWilliams-Mercedes1’30.6952.19937
162Stoffel VandoorneMcLaren-Honda1’30.7822.28631
1720Kevin MagnussenHaas-Ferrari1’30.8352.33933
1830Jolyon PalmerRenault1’30.8792.38325
199Marcus EricssonSauber-Ferrari1’31.6163.12027
2094Pascal WehrleinSauber-Ferrari1’31.9293.43330

Second practice visual gaps

Valtteri Bottas – 1’28.496

+0.047 Lewis Hamilton – 1’28.543

+0.332 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’28.828

+0.460 Sebastian Vettel – 1’28.956

+0.602 Max Verstappen – 1’29.098

+1.090 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’29.586

+1.440 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’29.936

+1.510 Felipe Massa – 1’30.006

+1.742 Fernando Alonso – 1’30.238

+1.887 Esteban Ocon – 1’30.383

+2.059 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’30.555

+2.066 Daniil Kvyat – 1’30.562

+2.128 Sergio Perez – 1’30.624

+2.165 Romain Grosjean – 1’30.661

+2.199 Lance Stroll – 1’30.695

+2.286 Stoffel Vandoorne – 1’30.782

+2.339 Kevin Magnussen – 1’30.835

+2.383 Jolyon Palmer – 1’30.879

+3.120 Marcus Ericsson – 1’31.616

+3.433 Pascal Wehrlein – 1’31.929

Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.

Best times by tyre

TeamBest super-soft timeSuper-soft gapBest soft timeSoft gapBest medium timeMedium gapMercedes1’28.9220.0941’28.543NoneMercedes1’32.2463.418None1’28.496Red Bull1’29.5860.7581’29.7641.221NoneRed Bull1’29.0980.271’30.3211.778NoneFerrari1’28.9560.1281’29.8501.307NoneFerrari1’28.8281’29.1610.618NoneForce India1’30.6241.7961’30.7552.212NoneForce India1’30.3831.5551’30.6832.14NoneWilliams1’30.0061.1781’30.3211.778NoneWilliams1’30.6951.8671’31.2572.714NoneMcLaren1’30.2381.41NoneNoneMcLaren1’30.7821.954NoneNoneToro Rosso1’30.5551.7271’52.01523.472NoneToro Rosso1’30.5621.7341’31.1912.6484’30.438181.942Haas1’30.6611.8331’31.6823.139NoneHaas1’30.8352.0071’31.3852.842NoneRenault1’29.9361.1081’31.6333.09NoneRenault1’30.8792.0511’31.6643.121NoneSauber1’31.6162.7881’32.1233.58NoneSauber1’31.9293.1011’32.4033.86None

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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34 comments on “Bottas edges Hamilton in second practice”

  1. Why do they keep showing us this shoulder cam angle when the majority of the fans don’t want it. I hope someone tell them to broadcast the T-cam on all cars at least for qualifying.

    1. How do you know the majority of the fans don’t want it? The commentators seem to like it plenty, I for one like it plenty because it’s closer to the driver’s vision and there’s more of a sense of speed (that’s why the dash cameras of the 90s were so awesome).
      But of course, you might be right, I just never saw anything that pointed to the majority of viewers preferring the roll-hoop camera over the over-the-shoulder camera.

      1. GS (@gsagostinho)
        14th July 2017, 14:29

        I, for one, also like it a lot. Also, people happy with something are less likely to vocalize it then people unhappy with something ;)

      2. Go to F1 reddit or YouTube and you will see many comments that they don’t want this shoulder cam angle. The cars look so sluggish from the shoulder camera, it’s terrible. The T-cam is always the best. The low angle is for being as close as what the driver sees, but it’s unnecessary and wrong actually because the angle zooms in too much. T-cam works much better in terms of giving you the perfect sense of speed and it let us see more of what the driver is doing. An example would be Hamilton’s pole in Canada, we can’t see how close he got to the wall of champs because it’s on the other side, blocked. Another one is Vettel hitting Hamilton in Baku, we can’t actually see whether Vettel physically controlled the car to ‘ram’ into Hamilton. For sure it has its ups and downs, but the only way for it to work ‘properly’ is for both cameras, shoulder and T-cam to be broadcasted to FOM, So when situations come, such as pole lap and circumstances that require the T-cam, it’s easier and more feasible.

        1. Another one is Vettel hitting Hamilton in Baku, we can’t actually see whether Vettel physically controlled the car to ‘ram’ into Hamilton

          To an extent you can. Though the view of Vettel’s steering wheel is blocked you have a clear view of the steering arm connected to the front left. It is clear from the onboard that the steering straightens as he draws alongside Hamilton, then turns back to the right just before impact.

          Anyway I too also favour the over the shoulder cam. I feel the T cam is too clinical.

        2. Exactly. The shoulder cam is terrible.

        3. Agreed. Ban it. Kill it with fire!

          1. @rpiian I like it, it makes you much closer of the bumps of the circuit while giving you a better impression of the speed IMO.

    2. Shoulder cam rules!
      Now they just need to put it on the helmet and add the sound of the heart beat and breathing and it would be perfect

  2. Everytime I see Hulkenberg somewhere around the top quarter of the time sheets, my eyes automatically scroll to the bottom quarter of the time sheets to look for Joylon.

    1. if Sauber has a respectable car that would be worse

    2. Yeah Jol’s time always seems to be = team mates time + 1 sec

      1. Similarly I look for Fernando’s time to see what the McLaren Honda is capable of!

        1. Haha! Exactly this! This was the first thing I did, check Alonso and then the gap between Hulk and Jolyon. I didn’t think anyone else did that.

          1. Add one more (also I used to check Massa vs Stroll)

          2. I did the same, but the other way round

      2. @redbullf1, cynically speaking, I wouldn’t be surprised if Renault have got to the point where they are giving Palmer as little support as they can get away with in the hope that he does badly, therefore giving them a reason to sack him.

        They didn’t really want him in the first place – he stayed mainly because they couldn’t get anybody else – and given they’ve said that they will be building the team around Hulkenberg, they probably don’t really care who is in the second seat so long as they don’t get in Hulkenberg’s way (Magnussen complained that Renault were offering him very little support when they offered him a deal last year). The team does have a long history of giving fairly poor treatment to their second drivers, and they’ve shown little sign of changing those policies in recent years.

        1. Hmm neve thought of it that way, but yeah could happen considering the teams will do anything to validate their decisions.

          @anon

    3. LOL me too! So much for Jo doing well with his revelation in performance – at his home track no less.

    4. Hulk – scroll for teammate
      Massa – scroll for teammate (make the pun yourself)
      Alonso – scroll for teammate

      1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
        14th July 2017, 21:15

        @verstappen

        Ricciardo – look for teammate in the pits :-)

  3. I’m not a fan of Bottas but I hope he wins this gp !

  4. I think Hamster has something up his sleeve. But Rosamary was also very fast around this track. Joking apart, expecting a good qualy battle between two.

  5. Hamilton have some time in hand. The doubt is if Ferrari will be closer tomorrow.
    Should be a great fight for pole.

    1. @edmarques
      He had time in hand in Austria too, doesn’t mean anything if you can’t put the lap together.

      1. @george I know right! He’s so bad at putting a lap together he’s still only second for poles in the all-time rankings. Haha. What a loser!

        1. Can you imagine what the record would have been if Senna had the performance advantage Hamilton has enjoyed for the last 3 years. With 20 races a year or more and a Rosberg for a teammate. He would have been well passed 70.

          1. @Baron

            Can you imagine what the record would’ve been like if Senna had performance the advantage or subservient teammates lSchumacher had from 2000-04, especially 2004?

            He could’ve well been pass 80.

    2. @edmarques
      I doubt it. Ferrari (or Red Bull) need to be well ahead in qualy simulations to compensate Mercedes’ q3 boost. Here I reckon the difference between Mercs’ q2 time and q3 will be at least 5 tenths.

  6. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
    14th July 2017, 18:09

    The Mercedes isn’t looking that reliable this year! :
    https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/bottas-grid-penalty-british-gp-gearbox-mercedes-930630/

    That is now a retirement plus a gear box penalty for Bottas. Hamilton had this same issue last race too.

  7. “Unlike Bottas, Hamilton set his best time on the soft tyre compound. He was over a tenth of a second quicker through the first sector of the lap on his qualifying simulation, but a mistake at Becketts spoiled his flying lap.”

    There’s no mention of what tires Bottas used to set his time.

    1. Supersoft for Bottas, Softs for Hamilton.

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