British F1 Grand Prix 2016 Qualifying: Results, Times from Friday's Practice
Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton topped the charts in second practice at Silverstone for the British Grand Prix, while his team-mate Nico Rosberg had to sit the session out due to reliability issues.
The absence of Rosberg in the afternoon meant the home crowd favourite was comfortably the quickest man on track, ahead of the Red Bull pair of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen in second and third, respectively.
Hamilton was fastest earlier in the day, too, although Rosberg did show some pace in the morning; the German finished just 0.033 seconds behind his team-mate at the end of FP1.
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Here is a closer look at how things panned out at Silverstone and the standings in full from both sessions.
Second Practice Recap
These are the provisional standings from the afternoon session courtesy of the Renault Twitter feed:
After a pretty straightforward morning practice, FP2 yielded a few more talking points, most notably the absence of Rosberg.
The team confirmed on their Twitter feed there was a “small water leak” from the car, which prevented the world championship leader from getting out on track. And despite teasers that the German would emerge, with the bodywork up and the driver out of the car it was stated he would not be in action on Friday afternoon.
As we can see here, even though Rosberg was forced to sit out the session, he was still making the most of the Silverstone sun:
But once his absence was confirmed, the Mercedes man retired to a television to take in the rest of the action:
The diagnosis didn’t look good for Rosberg, though. “The gearbox is off Rosberg's car,” said Allan McNish of BBC Sport. “It is obviously a major issue. Everyone is happy on one side of the garage and the other side looks like having a long night ahead of them.”
FP2 may have been valuable to experience for the Mercedes man, too, as various drivers experimented with different tyre compounds with some intriguing results.
On the usually quicker soft tyre, there were plenty in the field struggling for grip. Indeed, even the quickest time set by Hamilton early on, 1:31.660, was not as fast as his best effort on the mediums earlier in the day.
Another home-crowd favourite, Jenson Button, was finding things very difficult. The McLaren man complained of a loss of power throughout the session, and when he did emerge for a late dart, he, along with a few other drivers, was finding grip tough to come by on the Silverstone circuit:
Button did recover eventually, though, finding his groove and moving up into ninth with some quality laps.
Meanwhile, Hamilton continued to bank lap after lap, with nobody else in the field able to get close to the Mercedes man. It’s certainly an encouraging beginning to the week for the three-time world champion, who has won at his home Grand Prix on the way to all of his titles.
Elsewhere, it was an impressive afternoon for Red Bull, who have traditionally fared well at Silverstone. Ricciardo was the man closest to Hamilton, while Verstappen continued his impressive year with another strong showing in FP2.
First Practice Recap
The F1 Twitter feed provided us with the full results from an absorbing session:
The nascent stages of FP1 were typically edgy, as the drivers sought to find their groove around the British circuit.
Indeed, one of the most notable moments in FP1 was when Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel emerged using the cockpit halo.
Motor racing journalist Gianlu D’Alessandro posted the following clip of the German trying the technology:
It took Mercedes around 20 minutes to come out for a few timed laps. Naturally, once they did, they shot to the top of the leaderboard, with Rosberg first going quickest before he was usurped by team-mate Hamilton, much to the delight of those in attendance on Friday.
For the British drivers, it’s always a big weekend, and after finishing in sixth place in Austria for McLaren, all eyes were on Button to see his pace at Silverstone.
The team have been making steady improvements after negotiating some choppy waters in recent years, and with another upgrade confirmed ahead of the weekend, they were expected to show strong pace again here. Button finished the morning in 12th, though, while team-mate Fernando Alonso could only muster 10th.
The big battle was always going to be between the two Mercedes men, who traded positions atop of the leaderboard for spells of the session. As Hamilton geared up for a few laps late on, the F1 Twitter feed offered a close up view of the world champion’s tyres, before noting some drivers were being a little harsh under braking in FP1:
As the session wound down, a focus on pace was substituted for longer runs, and as such, there was little movement in the upper echelons of the leaderboard. It also allowed Nico Hulkenberg to post the third-quickest time in another fine showing for Force India.
Mercedes would have been content with the work done in the opening session, with both drivers impressing; Hamilton was just 0.033 seconds quicker than his team-mate, which points to potentially fascinating qualifying stints and an exciting race.
Nevertheless, given the competitiveness between the pair, expect both men to do their utmost to manufacture an advantage when they resume later in the day.
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