Bottas continues to narrowly set the pace in FP2

Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas stayed in command of the timesheets in the second free practice session for the British Grand Prix on Friday.

Having already broken the existing track record in the morning, Bottas improved by more than six tenths of a second after lunch. His FP2 time of 1:28.496s was just under five hundredths faster than that set by team mate Lewis Hamilton.

The Ferrari pair of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel were next fastest. However, they were more than three tenths off the pace of both Silver Arrows. Max Verstappen was fifth fastest ahead of his Red Bull team mate Daniel Ricciardo. Renault's Nico Hulkenberg was seventh, followed by Felipe Massa (Williams), Fernando Alonso (McLaren) and Esteban Ocon (Force India).

Conditions remained overcast, gusty and cool for the second Friday practice. Hulkenberg was the first driver to set a timed lap after lunch. Ten minutes into the session it was Vettel in charge with 1:30.320s on soft tyres, already faster than his FP1 time. That was quickly bettered by his Ferrari team mate Kimi Raikkonen, and then by Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo. Mercedes were next out to play, with Hamilton immediately breaking Bottas' FP1 track record with 1:28.543s.

The first driver to go exploring off-track after lunch was Haas' Romain Grosjean who soon took to the run-off at Copse. Shortly afterwards Carlos Sainz spun off at Becketts in the Toro Rosso and onto the grass. He rejoined on the approach to the Hangar Straight, but told the team that this set of soft tyres were 'destroyed' by the mishap. He returned to the pits without setting an initial time, and lost half the session while the team repaired the floor of the STR12.

• Bottas breaks track record and heads FP1 at Silverstone

McLaren was the first team to try out the supersofts, boosting Fernando Alonso into the top five. Bottas' own first flier on the same compound put him top of the times albeit only 0.047s faster than Hamilton's earlier high water mark on the soft options. Hamilton's own response on the qualifier compound saw him slip off the track at Becketts, damaging the floor of the W08 and consigning him to pit road for repairs.

When Hamilton eventually returned to action, he had turned his attention to long distance runs, in line with the rest of the field. Sainz was one of the few drivers to improve his position, his much-delayed first flying lap good enough for 11th ahead of team mate Daniil Kvyat.

Drivers continued to have moments during the session, including Jolyon Palmer spinning through Brooklands. Ricciardo, Verstappen, Massa and Raikkonen were all caught out running through Becketts. The Finn in particular was lucky not to get his rear wheels beached in the gravel as a result of his misadventure. Meanwhile the luckless Jolyon Palmer completed only 25 laps in FP2 due to clutch problems with his Renault.

There was also a moment of drama when Verstappen attempted to cut down the inside of Massa into the final corner. He came close to losing his front wing in the process. The race stewards 'noted' the incident, saying that they would look into it further after the session. There was also a late spat between Ricciardo and Grosjean, the Aussie voicing displeasure with the Haas driver's driving line as the chequered flag came out.

British Grand Prix - Free Practice 2 results

 
GALLERY: F1 drivers' wives and girlfriends

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter