Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Silverstone, 2019

Hamilton looks to get on terms with Bottas as Mercedes lead the way

2019 British Grand Prix Friday practice analysis

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A new track surface, a sprinkling of rain and blustery winds led to two error-strewn practice sessions at Silverstone on Friday.

The outcome was a mixed picture: Mercedes led the way, but one driver was happier than the other; Ferrari had good single-lap pace but their race pace is a worry; and Red Bull may be closer to their rivals than the headline times suggest.

At Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton admitted his team mate Valtteri Bottas grasped the car’s potential more quickly.

“We currently look like we’ve got good pace and particularly long-run pace looks good,” he said. “But I really struggled today if I’m really honest, I didn’t have the car beneath me. I was struggling with the rear end you saw me go off multiple times.

“Valtteri’s a lot more comfortable in the car for whatever reason. So we’re going to dig deep tonight and try to figure that out whatever that is. Of course not ruling it out or anything like that.”

We’ve seen this pattern before recently: Bottas hitting the ground running on day one, then Hamilton coming back at him on Saturday when the serious lapping begins. Tellingly, in Austria Bottas referred to past occasions when Hamilton had adopted his set-ups; nothing untoward about that of course, in fact quite normal when teams experiment with different configurations on Fridays, but it’s a sign these Friday-to-Saturday switcharounds have not escaped his attention.

In Austria Bottas became unstuck on the preparation lap for his final Q3 run – a lesson he will surely have learned from. Silverstone’s many straights will make having a slipstream in qualifying important, so we can expect more brinkmanship and last-corner shenanigans in the final minutes of Q3 on Saturday.

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Ferrari’s one-lap pace looked decent – potentially even in with a shout of taking on the Mercedes. But they were especially hard on their front tyres, which could prove limiting in the race. The cooler conditions forecast on Sunday may help them.

Red Bull’s drivers could not have contrasted more starkly in their assessments of how Friday had gone. Pierre Gasly called it his best Friday of the year; Max Verstappen described it as his worst. But the latter acknowledged he could see plenty of room for improvement in his lap time, indicating the RB15 could be in the thick of it again, particularly if its race stints are as competitive as they were in Austria.

Behind them, McLaren again seem to have made the largest year-on-year step of any team, indicating they are candidates to lead the midfield once more.

Longest stint comparison – second practice

This chart shows all the drivers’ lap times (in seconds) during their longest unbroken stint. Very slow laps omitted. Scroll to zoom, drag to pan, right-click to reset:

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Combined practice times

PosDriverCarFP1FP2Total laps
1Valtteri BottasMercedes1’27.6291’26.73253
2Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’28.1221’26.80160
3Charles LeclercFerrari1’28.2531’26.92950
4Pierre GaslyRed Bull-Honda1’27.1731’27.24955
5Sebastian VettelFerrari1’28.3041’27.18050
6Lando NorrisMcLaren-Renault1’29.1701’27.54660
7Max VerstappenRed Bull-Honda1’28.0091’27.56252
8Carlos Sainz JnrMcLaren-Renault1’29.1621’27.98769
9Alexander AlbonToro Rosso-Honda1’29.0931’27.99763
10Sergio PerezRacing Point-Mercedes1’29.4531’28.00258
11Daniil KvyatToro Rosso-Honda1’29.5001’28.00861
12Kevin MagnussenHaas-Ferrari1’30.6051’28.05953
13Kimi RaikkonenAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1’30.7471’28.12644
14Daniel RicciardoRenault1’29.0311’28.12841
15Nico HulkenbergRenault1’28.8031’28.21754
16Lance StrollRacing Point-Mercedes1’29.6571’28.24061
17Antonio GiovinazziAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1’30.0991’28.29451
18Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari1’30.8111’28.79447
19Robert KubicaWilliams-Mercedes1’32.1211’29.93563
20George RussellWilliams-Mercedes1’30.7411’30.51436

Teams’ progress vs 2018

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2019 British Grand Prix

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Author information

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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One comment on “Hamilton looks to get on terms with Bottas as Mercedes lead the way”

  1. LH already the acknowledged rain master!
    Now he has taken the double bluff sand bagging to a new height!
    Now see why he’s a multiple world champion.

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