Stroll heads F1 British GP second practice, big crash for Albon

Lance Stroll put his Racing Point Formula 1 car to the top of the timesheets to end British Grand Prix Friday practice quickest, while Alex Albon suffered a big crash.

In his rapid RP20, Stroll managed the fastest time of the day with a 1m27.274 amid scorching temperatures at Silverstone to lead the way for Racing Point.

Albon was just 0.090s adrift in second place, but the Red Bull driver’s good work was wrecked by a heavy shunt when he lost control of his RB16 at Stowe. The Anglo-Thai racer spun off during a flying lap and slid backwards into the armco barriers, causing substantial damage to the rear end and front left of his car.

The incident brought out a red flag period that scuppered the majority of the driver’s qualifying simulation runs, leading to a relatively mixed up FP2 order.

Valtteri Bottas was 0.157s off the pace as he put his Mercedes third, as Charles Leclerc managed to split the Mercedes drivers in fourth for Ferrari, just 0.011s clear of world championship leader Lewis Hamilton in fifth.

Both Bottas and Hamilton appeared to struggle more in the hotter conditions – which has proven to be a weakness for Mercedes in recent years – though they were also affected by the timing of the red flag, which ruined their initial flying laps. Hamilton backed out of a second run after he ran deep at Luffield.

Carlos Sainz turned in a strong lap to take sixth for McLaren, ahead of the returning Nico Hulkenberg, who was a solid seventh and just 0.636s off the pace of his Racing Point teammate and session-leader Stroll.

AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly also impressed with a lap good-enough to put his AT01 inside the top-10 in P8, as the Frenchman edged out Renault driver Daniel Ricciardo and Kimi Raikkonen, who was an encouraging P10 for Alfa Romeo.

Lando Norris finished 11th after being hampered by brake-related issues in his McLaren MCL35, ahead of Renault’s Esteban Ocon and Antonio Giovinazzi in the second Alfa Romeo.

After topping the opening 90-minute session, Max Verstappen was only 14th in FP2 after seeing his qualifying simulation effort curtailed after getting blocked by a slow-moving Romain Grosjean at Becketts.

Daniil Kvyat and Grosjean made up positions 15 and 16, while George Russell put his Williams 17th with a time that was just 1.497s off the pace.

Sebastian Vettel’s torrid Friday continued into second practice as he could only manage the 18th-fastest time.

The German had already been forced to skip FP1 after Ferrari discovered an engine issue and his problems carried on with a pedal change in the afternoon.

The Haas of Kevin Magnussen and Nicholas Latifi’s Williams were the only two drivers who lapped slower than Vettel.

FULL RESULTS FROM SECOND PRACTICE FOR THE 2020 F1 BRITISH GRAND PRIX.