(Motorsport) It was an extremely competitive Final Practice 2 at Silverstone with Carlos Sainz Jr. finishing fastest with a time of 1:28:942, followed closely behind by seven time World Champion Lewis Hamilton who was just +0.163 behind the Spaniard. McLaren’s Lando Norris followed in third place while reigning champion Max Verstappen was fourth and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc fifth. 

Following a rain disrupted session, FP2 was largely dry and windy as teams struggled to control their cars and keep them on track at Silverstone. Hamilton dropped to 15th place at one stage, complaining of excessive bouncing but managed to salvage his session by switching to the soft tyres. Mercedes had implemented a major upgrade to the W13 ahead of the British Grand Prix including a new floor and it paid dividends with Hamilton looking like his old self at his ‘home’ track.

Mercedes and Red Bull have shared victories in the nine Grand Prix’s so far but Mercedes seem to have finally found the answer to their problems ahead of both Hamilton and Russell’s home race. The team has suffered from excessive bouncing and a lack of pace so far and Mercedes are cautiously optimistic of their team’s chances this weekend. 

Trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin said “It seems like we have taken a step forward because we are not normally near the top on a Friday. Now, I expect there will be more to come from Ferrari and a bit more to come from Red Bull but the long run work was quite encouraging as well and those were overlaying quite nicely. There is certainly a lot to work on, there is some bouncing around and it is tricky at high speed at the moment but hopefully the updates pushed us in the right direction." 

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