Hamilton and Vettel lead the way in second practice

2017 Austrian Grand Prix second practice

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Lewis Hamilton kept his Mercedes on top of the timing sheets in second practice for the Austrian Grand Prix.

His lap of 1’05.483, set on ultra-soft tyres, was half a second quicker than he managed in the morning on soft tyres, and lowered the record time for the Red Bull Ring even further. However he was one of several drivers to experience problems during the session.

Austrian Grand Prix practice in pictures
Hamilton pitted to have an unspecified problem on his car inspected. He later reported feeling uncomfortable with its behaviour.

Less than four tenths of a second covered the top five drivers which included Sebastian Vettel in second, the second Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas in third, and then the two Red Bull drivers. Max Verstappen narrowly pipped Daniel Ricciardo after a delay in getting his session started due to a brake problem. Bottas spun at turn six early in practice.

Behind Kimi Raikkonen, Kevin Magnussen took ‘best of the rest’ honours in seventh. His Haas team mate Romain Grosjean was one of several drivers to run wide in the tricky final two corners, though he came off better than others who hit trouble there. Carlos Sainz Jnr’s session came to an early end due to damage incurred at the same turn.

Fernando Alonso brought more cheer to McLaren with the eighth-fastest time. This was despite losing time in the pits having his floor changed, and spinning off at turn six. He was one of three drivers to set a lap of 1’06.7.

In a difficult session for Toro Rosso, Daniil Kvyat was stopped by a brake fire a few minutes before practice ended. The Sauber pair were last, over a second slower than the rest.

Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
144Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’05.48330
25Sebastian VettelFerrari1’05.6300.14750
377Valtteri BottasMercedes1’05.6990.21641
433Max VerstappenRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’05.8320.34933
53Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’05.8730.39027
67Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’06.1440.66154
720Kevin MagnussenHaas-Ferrari1’06.5911.10843
814Fernando AlonsoMcLaren-Honda1’06.7321.24927
927Nico HulkenbergRenault1’06.7351.25242
108Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari1’06.7631.28052
1131Esteban OconForce India-Mercedes1’06.8491.36650
122Stoffel VandoorneMcLaren-Honda1’06.8591.37637
1326Daniil KvyatToro Rosso-Renault1’06.9061.42334
1419Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes1’07.0651.58250
1555Carlos Sainz JnrToro Rosso-Renault1’07.1001.61724
1618Lance StrollWilliams-Mercedes1’07.4681.98546
1711Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’07.5092.02641
1830Jolyon PalmerRenault1’07.6232.1407
1994Pascal WehrleinSauber-Ferrari1’08.7823.29949
209Marcus EricssonSauber-Ferrari1’08.8703.38751

Second practice visual gaps

Lewis Hamilton – 1’05.483

+0.147 Sebastian Vettel – 1’05.630

+0.216 Valtteri Bottas – 1’05.699

+0.349 Max Verstappen – 1’05.832

+0.390 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’05.873

+0.661 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’06.144

+1.108 Kevin Magnussen – 1’06.591

+1.249 Fernando Alonso – 1’06.732

+1.252 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’06.735

+1.280 Romain Grosjean – 1’06.763

+1.366 Esteban Ocon – 1’06.849

+1.376 Stoffel Vandoorne – 1’06.859

+1.423 Daniil Kvyat – 1’06.906

+1.582 Felipe Massa – 1’07.065

+1.617 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’07.100

+1.985 Lance Stroll – 1’07.468

+2.026 Sergio Perez – 1’07.509

+2.140 Jolyon Palmer – 1’07.623

+3.299 Pascal Wehrlein – 1’08.782

+3.387 Marcus Ericsson – 1’08.870

Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.

Fastest times by tyre

DriverTeamBest ultra-soft timeUltra-soft gapBest super-soft timeSuper-soft gapBest soft timeSoft gap
Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’05.4831’05.7310.031None
Valtteri BottasMercedes1’05.6990.2161’05.700None
Daniel RicciardoRed Bull1’05.8730.39NoneNone
Max VerstappenRed Bull1’05.8320.349NoneNone
Sebastian VettelFerrari1’05.6300.1471’05.8520.152None
Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’06.1440.661None1’06.344
Sergio PerezForce India1’07.5092.0261’07.6131.913None
Esteban OconForce India1’06.8491.3661’07.1831.483None
Felipe MassaWilliams1’07.0651.582None1’07.3581.014
Lance StrollWilliams1’07.4681.9851’07.5261.826None
Fernando AlonsoMcLaren1’06.7321.2491’06.9671.267None
Stoffel VandoorneMcLaren1’06.8591.3761’06.8601.16None
Carlos Sainz JnrToro Rosso1’07.1001.6171’07.2831.583None
Daniil KvyatToro Rosso1’06.9061.423None1’07.0370.693
Romain GrosjeanHaas1’06.7631.281’07.0001.3None
Kevin MagnussenHaas1’06.5911.1081’06.9141.214None
Nico HulkenbergRenault1’06.7351.2521’07.7132.013None
Jolyon PalmerRenaultNoneNone1’07.6231.279
Marcus EricssonSauber1’08.8703.3871’09.1663.466None
Pascal WehrleinSauber1’08.7823.299None1’09.2262.882

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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37 comments on “Hamilton and Vettel lead the way in second practice”

  1. nelson piquet
    7th July 2017, 14:31

    so mclaren released the sandbags

    1. Yeah, it really seems as if the spec 3 engine gives them the speculated extra 50 hp. All we can now hope for is that’s also a step in reliability. Because dropping out from P7-10 because of reliability is much worse than dropping out from the last 5 places or so.

      1. @addvariety that boost in power probably was there all along but they couldn’t use it because of reliability issues. They must be working on that to eek out more of the engine before it explodes, rather than finding more power… that’s the usual route anyway: get more power -> finding the reability needed to exploit it -> use all the capabilities -> get more power again

        1. Lets just see tomorrow when everyone else turn their engines up.

          1. @asanator You mean everyone whose engine starts with an M?

    2. nelson piquet, have they really done so? We are talking about a roughly 2% deficit around the shortest track on the calendar – whilst that is closer than they have been in some of the more recent races, where the deficit was around 3-4%, it is not entirely clear at this stage if that is just down to the engine performance or whether that is also a reflection of the shortness of this track.

    3. the spec 3 engine wont produce more power straight away, Alonso said it himself. slight power increase, with better reliability – and then more power in next races – a bit too late though for Alonso in his 3rd year of a 3 year contract. anyway, so far so good I guess, top 10 for vandoorne and Alonso in fp1 and fp2 – but that is because of solid McLaren chassis – as speed trap times show Honda still at the bottom this weekend. the difference to the first car will be less because of shorter lap time.

  2. Miltiadis (@miltosgreekfan)
    7th July 2017, 14:33

    Up in front,everything seems “normal”,Mercedes,Ferrari & Rbr covering the first 6 spots,but in the midfield,there are some unpredictable changes.McLaren,Haas,STR looks pretty good,while Williams & F.I struggle a lot,especially in sector 3.Its strange coz Red Bull Ring is a power related circuit.We will see tomorrow if the midfield battle will stay the same.

    1. You need to leave a space after punctuation. Examples of this are in all good books, magazines and even on the internet. It helps people understand what you are writing.

      1. Miltiadis (@miltosgreekfan)
        7th July 2017, 15:00

        Ok i ll have that in mind.

        1. Miltiadis (@miltosgreekfan)
          7th July 2017, 15:08

          Lol😂

          1. lol as well!

        2. video of the day

        3. Haha, very good!

        4. Well played!

  3. Is the spec3 really that good? Mclaren is almost becoming best of the rest now. Hope the good performance continues tomorrow.

  4. GtisBetter (@)
    7th July 2017, 14:39

    What is wrong with the Saubers? They are over 1 sec behind on a circuit where the time is just over a minute. Palmer was on a harder tyre, so I disregarded him.

    1. @passingisoverrated
      They’re falling back due to an outdated, frozen engine, insufficient funds, possibly also due to the confusion surrounding the dismissal of their manager, and/or the meddling of their main sponsor.
      They were already seriously lagging behind on other power-sensitive circuits (Monaco was pretty horrible, too), and now their gap to the pack seems to have been exacerbated by McLaren’s moving up the ranks.

      1. as what @nase said… sauber are struggling with outdated equipment and limited updates for the future. why are they still called “sauber” when peter sauber is not investing in their performance anymore.

        1. Sundar Srinivas Harish
          8th July 2017, 6:16

          For the same reason McDonald’s is called McDonald’s even though Ray Kroc took the name from the McDonald brothers.

  5. What’s going on with Mclaren?

  6. I am getting more and more excited for Mclaren, especially Vandoorne, seems to be keeping with Alonso’s pace.
    Could be one of those drivers that does relatively better when they are handed are more competitive car (rather than just linear increase in speed due to the car alone).

    1. it is only 2 practice sessions… where was vandoorne the rest of the year??? lets wait to fp3 and qualifying where speed increases, vandoorne will likely be behind Alonso as usual.

  7. Looking at the timesheets, I can only conclude that Honda have given Sauber their Honda engines right away, and have put Sauber’s 2016 Ferrari engines in the McLarens.

    1. made me lol :D

  8. Is it me or is free practice much more entertaining and interesting this season? So many mistakes, much more action. Definitely enjoying it.

    1. nelson piquet
      7th July 2017, 15:10

      proper f1 is back in general. and i enjoy every bit of it

      1. True that, this is the F1 we’ve all waited for !

  9. Seems to me it’s less that McLaren are faster than expected, more that Force India and Williams are slower than expected at this track. There’s a Haas in front and a Renault behind Alonso in the timesheet, which is pretty much as it has been this season.

    1. it is only practice! and also realise this is a short track with only 7 turns.

  10. At this rate of development, how soon can these cars begin to lap this circuit in less than a minute? Can’t wait to see that!

    1. the track will still be boring and have less overtaking at sub 1 minute times.

  11. I am predicting possibly the worst race of the year if there is no safety cars… and a highly exciting race if their is at least one safety car. I don’t foresee any overtaking at this track this year. who agrees? I hope I am wrong and we get an exciting race, but I think pole position will win the race.

  12. I remember a few races ago Force India was fined for not having large enough numbers and/or driver ID’s on the car. Can anyone tell me why only some drivers are required to have their “names” on the side of their car? It seems non of the top teams (Merc, Ferrari, RB) have driver abbreviations on the car – I thought it was a new rule.

    1. Tommy Scragend
      7th July 2017, 21:20

      Force India’s problem was that the number on the nose wasn’t visible enough (it was right at the top so pointing upwards at the sky).

      I think the requirement on the side of the car is for either the number or the abbreviation. I don’t understand why the choice – it should be mandated one or the other – but I think that’s the rule.

Comments are closed.