Verstappen leads Canada FP2 as Mercedes avoids Hypersofts
Red Bull's Max Verstappen charged to the top of the timesheets in second practice for the Canadian Grand Prix on Friday, as Mercedes opted against showing its true pace by using the Hypersoft compound Formula 1 tyre.
After leading FP1 in the morning ahead of Lewis Hamilton, Verstappen was able to double up through FP2 as he finished one-tenth of a second clear of the field with a fastest lap time of 1m12.198s, leading from Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen.
Red Bull's Max Verstappen charged to the top of the timesheets in second practice for the Canadian Grand Prix on Friday, as Mercedes opted against showing its true pace by using the Hypersoft compound Formula 1 tyre.
After leading FP1 in the morning ahead of Lewis Hamilton, Verstappen was able to double up through FP2 as he finished one-tenth of a second clear of the field with a fastest lap time of 1m12.198s, leading from Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen.
Verstappen completed his lap on the Hypersoft compound that will be used in the fight for pole position in Q3 in Saturday, but neither Mercedes driver managed a single lap on the tyre, with the team needing to save sets for the rest of the weekend after only bringing five to Montreal.
Despite an estimated pace disadvantage of more than one second, Hamilton was still able to finish the session fourth for Mercedes on the Supersoft tyre, finishing half a second back from Verstappen at the front of the pack. Teammate Valtteri Bottas finished the session sixth, a further three-tenths of a second behind.
Monaco race winner Daniel Ricciardo was stuck in his garage for an hour due to an issue on his Red Bull RB14 car, with the Australian only getting out for an extended run with less than 20 minutes remaining. Ricciardo rallied to turn in a lap good enough for third place on the Hypersoft tyre with three minutes left in the session.
Sebastian Vettel was forced to sit out the opening stages of the session as Ferrari completed work on his car while it was up on jacks, but rebounded to finish the session fifth overall, seven-tenths off Verstappen in P1. However, he was limited to only XXX laps, with his chief rivals at the front completing around twice as many in the 90-minute session.
Romain Grosjean led the midfield fight for Haas, takign P7 for Haas ahead of the Force India duo Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez in eighth and ninth respectively. Fernando Alonso completed the top 10 for McLaren, finishing 1.6 seconds off Verstappen's headline time.
Charles Leclerc impressed to take 11th for Sauber ahead of Toro Rosso's Brendon Hartley, with Kevin Magnussen taking 13th in the second Haas. Nico Hulkenberg bounced back from his gearbox issue in FP1 to finish 14th, but Renault's woes continued as teammate Carlos Sainz Jr. spun into the wall at Turn 7 and damaged the rear of his car, causing a brief red flag period.
Marcus Ericsson took 15th ahead of McLaren's Stoffel Vandoorne, who also hit trouble after touching the wall exiting Turn 9 and damaging his suspension, bringing his session to an end with 30 minutes still left on the clock.
Pierre Gasly had a difficult session for Toro Rosso, locking up on a number of occasions as he struggled to 18th. Williams drivers Lance Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin propped up the timesheets in 19th and 20th respectively.
