Hamilton quickest again in second Austria F1 practice

Lewis Hamilton continued to dominate proceedings during Formula 1 practice for the Austrian Grand Prix on Friday afternoon, heading up a one-two finish for Mercedes through FP2 ahead of teammate Valtteri Bottas.

After lead the way for Mercedes in the opening session earlier in the day, Hamilton continued to set the pace through the second 90-minute practice running in the afternoon, putting the team's "serious" upgrade package to good use around the fast-flowing Red Bull Ring circuit.

Hamilton shaved a further three-tenths of a second off his best time from FP1 to record a fastest lap of 1m04.579s, giving him P1 by 0.176 seconds ahead of Bottas in the sister Mercedes as the pair swept to another one-two finish.

Sebastian Vettel finished as the best of the rest for Ferrari in FP2, finishing one-quarter of a second back from Hamilton in third place. Daniel Ricciardo was left to settle for fourth overall for Red Bull ahead of teammate Max Verstappen. Kimi Raikkonen once again struggled to match Ferrari teammate Vettel for pace, finishing the session sixth overall, four-tenths of a second back from the German.

As he did in FP1, Romain Grosjean was able to head up the midfield fight once again for Haas, ending the session seventh ahead of teammate Kevin Magnussen as both finished within one second of Hamilton at the front. Magnussen's session was not without incident, though, as he was told to stop his car at the end of the pit lane when Haas spotted his front-right tyre had not been fitted properly.

Pierre Gasly continued Toro Rosso's impressive form in Austria by finishing the session ninth, but his running was interrupted when he suffered suspension damaged on the kerb at the final corner, causing him to go straight on and beach his car in the gravel, with the incident resulting in a brief red flag period. Toro Rosso managed to recover Gasly's car and patch it up in time to send him out later in the session, limiting the time lost.

Stoffel Vandoorne put in one of his strongest Friday displays of the season so far to finish 10th for Mclaren, finishing half a second clear of teammate Fernando Alonso, who wound up a lowly 19th in the sister MCL33 car. Carlos Sainz Jr. took P11 for Renault ahead of Charles Leclerc and Esteban Ocon, with Marcus Ericsson winding up 14th for Sauber.

Nico Hulkenberg had another quiet session as he finished 15th ahead of Williams' Sergey Sirotkin, with Toro Rosso's Brendon Hartley and Force India's Sergio Perez both failing to match their teammates for pace, finishing down in 17th and 18th respectively. Lance Stroll propped up the timesheets behind Alonso in P20, lapping two seconds slower than Hamilton at the front.

FORMULA 1 2018 AUSTRIAN GRAND PRIX - FREE PRACTICE 2 RESULTS