In the second free practice session for the British Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc was fourth fastest and Sebastian Vettel was 18th. The big gap between them can be explained by the fact the German again experienced some issues this afternoon.
Pedal Box. Sebastian, who only completed two laps in the morning session because checks had to be carried out on his SF1000, took to the track right at the start of the session. He was running hard tyres and set a time of 1’30”955, but then reported a problem in the cockpit and pitted to sort it out. The team decided to change his pedal box and so Vettel lost even more track time, eventually getting out again but focussing on long runs. On his only qualifying simulation, he made a small mistake and could do no better than 1’28”869, 18thfastest on the time sheet. He then did some laps in race configuration to check the handling of the car with more fuel on board.
Trouble free. Charles’ afternoon ran to plan. He completed 30 laps and on his qualifying simulation lap he posted a 1’27”570, which ended up being the fourth fastest time. In the second part of the session, he too concentrated on running in race configuration on Medium tyres.
Programme. Tomorrow’s final free practice session starts at 11 local (12 CET) with qualifying at 14 (15 CET.) The 71st British Grand Prix gets underway on Sunday at 14.10 (15.10 CET.)