Kimi Räikkönen set the quickest time of this week’s Silverstone test, with the Ferrari driver recording a lap of 1:30.665, eclipsing second-placed Esteban Ocon of Mercedes by more then half a second. Räikkönen’s time was a similar margin up on yesterday’s fastest time, set by McLaren’s Fernando Alonso.
After a troubled day yesterday, during which driver Charles Leclerc was restricted to the garage for long periods, Räikkönen enjoyed a more positive outing today. After a morning spent on the medium compound tyre, the Ferrari driver ran with softs in the afternoon and an hour from the end of the session he put together a complete lap to rise to P1.
In doing so he dislodged Mercedes’ Esteban Ocon, who had spent most of the day in top spot. The Frenchman had taken top spot in the final half hour of the morning session on soft tyres and it would remain his best of a busy day for the Mercedes junior drivers as he posted the most mileage of any driver for the day, with 139 laps of the 5.8km circuit.
Third place in the session went to Red Bull Racing’s Pierre Gasly. After a difficult first day in which he missed all of the morning running due to electrical problems, the GP2 driver ran without issue today, posting 103 laps, the vast majority of which were conducted on the medium tyre. However, in the final minutes of the session the young Frenchman was given a chance to show what he could on the soft tyre and he quickly jumped up the order, his best lap of 1:39.421 being good enough for third, just over two tenths of a second behind Ocon.
FIA Formula 3 European Championship racer Nikita Mazepin finished in fourth place after a good day’s work at the wheel for Force India. The 17-year-old Russian set a best of 1:31.561, although it was set on the red-banded Pirelli supersoft tyres.
Behind Mazepin, Stoffel Vandoorne took over from Alonso at the wheel of the McLaren MP4-31 and the Belgian driver enjoyed a solid outing for the Woking team, posting over 100 laps for a best time of 1:31.764, a second adrift of Räikkönen’s P1 time.
Behind Vandoorne, Valtteri Bottas was sixth fastest, with the Finn once again trying out the radical ‘double decker’ rear wing the team has been trialling.
Haas once again had 18-year-old Santino Ferrucci at the wheel of its car and the Amercian driver spent a long period during the morning session conducting pit stop practice for the team. In the afternoon, Ferrucci completed his fastest lap of 1:33.141 of soft tyres. In all the US driver got through a useful 107 laps for his home team.
Jolyon Palmer was eighth quickest ahead of Toro Rosso debutant and FIA F3 European Championship driver Sergio Sette Camara, who completed 82 laps on his first day in the car. The Brazilian did have one nervous moment, however, when he lost control in the final corner during the morning. He spun but managed to catch the car and continued.
Formula One Testing – Silverstone Day 2
1 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:30.665 103
2 E. Ocon Mercedes 1:31.212 139
3 P. Gasly Red Bull 1:31.429 103
4 N. Mazepin Force India 1:31.561 69
5 S. Vandoorne McLaren 1:31.764 114
6 V. Bottas Williams 1:32.423 98
7 S. Ferrucci Haas 1:33.141 107
8 J. Palmer Renault 1:33.308 98
9 S. Camara Toro Rosso 1:34.040 82
10 J. King Manor 1:35.060 70
11 P. Wehrlein Pirelli 1:36.182 128
FIA
