70th Anniversary GP: Mercedes remains on top in FP2

Lewis Hamilton took over from Valtteri Bottas in Friday's second practice session for F1's 70th Anniversary Grand Prix at Silverstone, the Mercedes duo leading the field by a comfortable margin.

Hamilton put a 1m25.606s on the board on the medium tyre in the first part of the session before Mercedes switched to long runs in the latter part of FP2 and showing equally impressive pace.

Daniel Ricciardo claimed bragging rights for finishing the day third and 'best of the rest', the Renault charger trailing Hamilton by 0.815s but edging Verstappen by 0.016s, while Racing Point's Lance Stroll rounded off the top five.

• 70th Anniversary Grand Prix Free Practice 2 - Results

Track temperatures sat at 42 degrees Celsius as Friday's second practice got underway, with a few silver clouds floating about Silverstone.

It took a few minutes before the first contenders came rolling down the pitlane. For the first time of the day, the majority of the drivers started sampling Pirelli's C3 medium tyre.

But it was Lance Stroll on softs that topped the early time sheet, but the Canadian, who was comprehensively outpaced by super-sub Nico Hulkenberg in FP1, ceded the top spot to his fast-moving teammate.

However, the pretty-in-pink duo was dispatched in short order by a soft-shod Hamilton, with Bottas following suit while Red Bull's Max Verstappen slotted in third.

A switch to the mediums did nothing to slow Hamilton's pace, the Briton clocking in at 1m25.606s. And a fresh set of softs pushed Renault's Daniel Ricciardo all the way up the third, the Aussie clearing Verstappen by 0.06s and popping up into the top-ten for the first time of the day.

Among the field, several drivers experienced race runs on the medium tyres to collect strategy data for Sunday, with times lagging the fastest laps by a little under five seconds.

There again, the Mercedes pair appeared to hold an edge, consistently lapping in the low 1m30s, a performance that offered a glimpse of the team's expected - superior - race pace.

Meanwhile, the McLaren boys had yet to try the medium or hard tyres, with both Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris circulation on the softs as they entered into the final 15 minutes of the session.

While everyone was prepping for an uneventful end to the day, Vettel was seen parking the SF1000 next to Silverstone's national paddock at Copse but leaving a streak of oil in his wake: the tell-tale sign of a massive engine failure!

The incident brought out a Virtual Safety Car, but a red flag was brought out with minutes remaining on the clock, signaling a premature end to the day just as Alfa's Antonio Giovinazzi was also seen parking his car at Maggots, perhaps also with a Ferrari engine failure.

The FP2 verdict was thus another clean sweep for Mercedes, with Hamilton relaying Bottas at the top while Ricciardo finished third, ahead of Verstappen and Stroll.

Most laps of the session went to Kvyat (33) and Leclerc (32) who bot achieved more than half a race distance.

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