Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton took the lead in Friday's second free practice session, the Mercedes duo just edging Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel.

Bottas enjoyed only a 0.069s advantage over his team mate while Leclerc was 0.197s behind the Finn.

Pierre Gasly clocked in P5, the Red Bull charger who was fastest in FP1 heading McLaren's Lando Norris and teammate Max Verstappen.

Bottas made his mark early on in the session, running on Pirelli's medium tyre, outpacing Hamilton on the same rubber, with reigning world champion suffering a brief off-track moment at high speed during his run.

A switch to the soft tyre initially allowed Hamilton to inch closer to his teammate but the latter succeeded in extracting more speed from his W10 to conclude the session at the top of the timesheet.

Ferrari improved its performance in the afternoon, with Leclerc lagging in the pecking order on the medium tyre but moving up to within 0.197s of Bottas on the softs.

Vettel also suffered a high-speed off early in the session, losing control at Becketts. The German's effort on the medium tyre a short while later could not get him within striking distance of Bottas while his run on the red-rimmed soft compound left him almost half a second adrift of the Finn.

Noriis enjoyed an impressive Friday afternoon session, splitting the Red Bulls and also leading the mid-field pack's performance on the medium tyre.

His McLaren teammate Carlos Sainz concluded his day P8 while Toro Rosso's Alex Albon and Racing Point's Sergio Perez rounded off the top-ten.

Both Renault drivers were noticeably absent from the first half of the grid, with Daniel Ricciardo complaining of "crazy understeer" before his car unexpectedly stopped at Maggotts during a race sim run following a suspected engine issue.

At the bottom of the pack, George Russell made up the rear, the Williams driver having to contend with a gearbox issue.

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

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

Michael Delaney

Recent Posts

Sebastian Montoya steps up to Formula 2 with Prema

Sebastian Montoya, the 19-year-old son of former Formula 1 star Juan Pablo Montoya, is set…

11 hours ago

Sauber finds its ‘Northern Star’ under Binotto’s leadership

When former Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto took on the role of Chief Operating Officer…

12 hours ago

Leclerc hails a season ‘without missed opportunities' in 2024

Charles Leclerc concluded the 2024 F1 season with a sense of satisfaction, the Ferrari driver…

13 hours ago

Coulthard sounds alarm over FIA president’s rift with F1 drivers

Former Formula 1 driver David Coulthard has voiced his dismay at FIA president Mohammed Ben…

15 hours ago

The rapid rise and fall of Super Aguri in F1

Super Aguri's application to join Formula 1 became a reality on this day in 2005,…

16 hours ago

Ferrari's 2024 Season: Marked improvement and a fight to the finish

Ferrari roared back into contention in 2024 to deliver their strongest season in years, thanks…

17 hours ago