Great Britain – Free Practice 2: Hamilton on top and in trouble!

A lot of wind on the Silverstone side just seconds before the start of the second free practice session of the 2014 British Grand Prix. This could hinder the drivers.

Here we go! Max Chilton is the first on track, ahead of Valtteri Bottas, who is back in the driver’s seat after lending it to Susie Wolff in the morning. He will need to be diligent as Felipe Massa’s car is not quite ready yet after the accident during FP1. There’s work to do on Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull as well. The German driver arrives after 12 minutes in the Austrian team’s garage.

Many drivers are making braking errors and complaining about delicate car behavior: the effects of reduced downforce compared to last season. Romain Grosjean tells his engineer that his car is very bad, very bad. Vettel hits the track after 20 minutes into the session, and Massa is getting ready. The Williams mechanics have done a good job. On Daniil Kvyat’s side, a huge scare in the fast curves, but he manages to keep his Toro Rosso in line. Marcus Ericsson is the first driver to fit the medium (white) tires, the softest brought by Pirelli to Silverstone.

After half an hour, Lewis Hamilton is in the lead (1:35.424), ahead of Ricciardo (+0.087s), Rosberg (+0.221), Alonso (+0.600), and Vettel (+0.684). Due to a battery problem with his Marussia, Jules Bianchi is still stuck in the pits. In the corner leading up to the old pit straight, Grosjean fails to control his Lotus, which oversteers and ends up in the gravel trap: « Box, box, box » he announces to his pit wall.

On their side, the Mercedes are quietly and comfortably in the lead, as the two men engage in a little duel at a distance, won by Hamilton with a time of 1:34.508, giving him a 228-thousandths advantage over Rosberg. Moments later, Fernando Alonso takes 3rd place, trailing the 2008 World Champion by seven-tenths. The drivers then almost all begin their long stints, more or less fuel-loaded.

After an hour, Hamilton leads Rosberg, Alonso, Ricciardo, and Vettel. It is at this moment that Lewis Hamilton is immobilized on the track, visibly facing an oil pressure problem, according to the BBC. He leaves his car and will have to forgo this last half-hour of running. The same goes for Ericsson, who reports an exploded engine on the radio and coasts back to the pits… of GP2.

Less than fifteen minutes from the end, Jean-Eric Vergne stops off track. His front left wheel has detached due to a breakage, evidently. On the Williams side, a spectacular image: a part of Bottas’s car engine cover ripped off on the straight. The Finnish driver returns to the pits for the team to examine this incident. Few improvements in these final minutes, and thus this second session closes with a status quo: Hamilton, ahead of Rosberg and Alonso.