The second free practice at Silverstone was won by Sebastian Vettel but was headlined by Max Verstappen, who lost control of his Red Bull and broke the rear-end of his car.
The session (in which Romain Grosjean didn’t participate) started with Ferrari flexing their muscles as soon as they came on the track. Kimi Raikkonen was almost a second and a half quicker than Leclerc, who was sitting in P2 at the time. Vettel came close but couldn’t beat his teammate in the early stages.
Then, Verstappen happened. The Dutchman finally seemed to have shaken off most of the criticism he’d been receiving this year by finishing on the podium three straight times and winning in Austria, but accidents like this can’t happen anymore.
The 20-year-old lost his car when coming out of a corner, over-corrected and then just lost control of his car completely. He slid across the gravel and hit the wall, destroying his right-rear suspension. Could this have implications for his qualifying tomorrow? Fact is that he needs to eliminate these kinds of crashes from his game if he ever wants to compete for a title.
At the top, it was Sebastian Vettel who led the rest of the session after the green flag was waved again. Ferrari clearly looked the quickest car out there, with Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas following the German in second and third respectively.
Looking down, Fernando Alonso was surprisingly quick in his McLaren. The Spaniard ended the session in P6, leaving all the other midfield cars in his dust. With all the drama that went on at McLaren this week, that’s a positive thing for the team, at least.
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