Lewis Hamilton continued his strong performance at Silverstone by setting the pace in second practice as team-mate Nico Rosberg sat out the session with a mechanical issue.
The reigning World Champion was in imperious form, setting a best time of 1:31.660 to set on top of the timing sheets for the second time of the day, with Hamilton the only driver to dip beneath the 92-second barrier during the 90-minute session.
But it was a much different story for his Mercedes AMG PETRONAS team-mate Rosberg, who did not leave the garage at all during the session, with the team twice removing the floor of the car as they investigated a possible fuel system problem with his W07 Hybrid.
Daniel Ricciardo was the best of the chasing pack during the session, with the Red Bull Racing driver 0.391 seconds behind pacesetter Hamilton, although the Australian was called into the pits before being able to make a practice start after the conclusion of the session being warned not to change gear on his RB12.
Max Verstappen confirmed Red Bull’s pace with the third fastest time, ahead of the Scuderia Ferrari duo Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen, while Fernando Alonso was a strong sixth for the McLaren-Honda team, who are running with an upgraded power unit this weekend for the first time.
Valtteri Bottas was the best placed of the Williams Martini Racing drivers in seventh, albeit 1.833 seconds adrift of Hamilton, while Romain Grosjean finished ninth fastest for the Haas F1 Team, a further 0.121 seconds back.
Jenson Button, backing out on one of his fast laps at the final corner before running slowly around the track to get back into the pits with an apparent throttle problem on his McLaren, finished ninth fastest, with the Williams of Felipe Massa completing the top ten despite ending his own session more than ten minutes early with the mechanics looking over his car.
Carlos Sainz Jr just missed out on the top ten in the leading of the Scuderia Toro Rosso, albeit more than two-seconds off the pace, with Esteban Gutierrez twelfth for Haas.
Daniil Kvyat was next up in thirteenth despite the Toro Rosso driver suffering a lurid spin at the final turn early in the session that broke his front wing, with the Russian also vocal over the radio that his STR11 was ‘hard to drive’.
Felipe Nasr was fourteenth for the Sauber F1 Team, outpacing both of the Sahara Force India drivers, with Nico Hülkenberg ahead of Sergio Perez, while Pascal Wehrlein, fresh off his points-scoring weekend in Austria, was seventeenth for Manor Racing.
Jolyon Palmer and Kevin Magnussen languished down in eighteenth and twentieth respectively for the Renault Sport F1 team, either side of the second Sauber of Marcus Ericsson, while Rio Haryanto was the last driver to set a time in twenty-first, finishing ahead only of the pit-bound Rosberg.
Silverstone Free Practice 2 Result
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