German Grand Prix: Red Bull's Max Verstappen fastest in second practice - F1 News

F1 News - German Grand Prix: Red Bull's Max Verstappen fastest in second practice

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Red Bull's Max Verstappen was the surprise pace-setter ahead of the two Mercedes in second practice at the German Grand Prix.

The Dutchman, whose team are not expecting to be able to compete for pole with Mercedes and Ferrari, pipped Lewis Hamilton by 0.026 seconds.

Hamilton, who made a mistake on his best lap, was 0.225secs clear of title rival Sebastian Vettel.

Hamilton's team-mate Valtteri Bottas was also ahead of the German's Ferrari.

Verstappen's fastest time meant Red Bull topped both sessions on Friday, after team-mate Daniel Ricciardo set the pace in the morning session from Hamilton by just 0.004secs.

Ricciardo, who will start from the back of the grid as a result of grid penalties for using too many engine parts, was only 13th fastest after a late start to the session and a spin, which meant he did not do a qualifying simulation run like the rest of the drivers.

Red Bull in general had a difficult day, despite setting the pace. Verstappen suffered an engine problem midway through the second session and was not able to complete a race-simulation run, trying the car on heavy fuel.

Vettel's team-mate Kimi Raikkonen was fifth fastest, ahead of the Haas drivers Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen.

Sauber's Charles Leclerc, tipped to be promoted to Ferrari at the expense of Raikkonen next year, continued his impressive progress with eighth fastest time, 0.4secs and six places ahead of team-mate Marcus Ericsson, and ahead of Renault's Nico Hulkenberg and Force India's Esteban Ocon.

McLaren had another difficult day, having to use Fridays as test sessions because the car on track is suffering aerodynamic problems that the wind tunnel does not show up.

Fernando Alonso ended the day 17th fastest and team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne slowest of all.

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via BBC Sport - Formula 1 https://ift.tt/OHg7x6

July 20, 2018 at 09:36AM