Lewis Hamilton puts Mercedes in British GP contention with Carlos Sainz fastest despite off

British Grand Prix

Hamilton puts Mercedes in British GP contention with Sainz fastest despite off

Can Mercedes challenge in qualifying?

Ewan Gale

Friday 1 July 2022 18:01 Updated: 18:14

Lewis Hamilton gave Mercedes fans hope of a competitive British Grand Prix weekend as Carlos Sainz dubiously took second practice honours.

The Ferrari driver lapped the Silverstone circuit in a time of one minute, 28.942secs almost two-tenths faster than Hamilton's Mercedes after Charles Leclerc headed a Ferrari one-two after the initial medium-tyre runs.

But Sainz's time would likely be deleted if set during qualifying, with the Spaniard running well wide at Copse.

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Hamilton had raised fears of further woes across the weekend for the Silver Arrows with a radio message complaining of bouncing after just nine laps of the session, but the W13 looked much more settled during his qualifying simulation run.

Crucially, both Hamilton and Russell took at least one extra warm-up lap before their flying attempts in order to bring the tyres up to temperature.

The result marks Hamilton's best practice session since the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix last year.

Lando Norris finished third quickest, 0.013s adrift of Hamilton's time, with Max Verstappen fourth and Charles Leclerc fifth fastest.

Drivers hit the track in anger from the off to make up for lost time from the first session with teams testing upgrades added for the weekend.

But a change in wind direction left drivers battling a tailwind into Abbey and Village, Norris and Verstappen the first drivers to take an off-track excursion.

The reigning world champion complained throughout the session after hearing a mysterious noise from the cockpit, though Red Bull would not expand on the potential issue.

Alpine's Fernando Alonso continued his impressive form with the sixth-fastest time of the session, a tenth faster than Sergio Perez and Russell.

Daniel Ricciardo finished ninth and Lance Stroll 10th, the Aston Martin driver bouncing back from his red-flag triggering incident at the end of FP1.

Sebastian Vettel was consigned to the garage for the final 10 minutes of the session having suffered floor damage to his AMR22, despite not having hit any kerbs nor run off-track.

Esteban Ocon also lost track-time with a cracked sidepod, whilst Norris was involved in a bizarre pit incident after McLaren's rear jack failed.

One mechanic, in a rush to get Norris back on track, attempted to fit the tyre on the wrong way around before finally realising his error and seeing his driver on his way.