Red Bull continued their strong German GP Friday form by topping FP2, as Max Verstappen led the two Mercedes’ at the front.
The Dutchman lapped the 2.8-mile Hockenheimring circuit in 1m 13.085s, in a session that saw the top five drivers covered by just over three-tenths of a second.
It wasn’t the smoothest of sessions for the Austrian GP winner, however, as a gearbox issue kept him in the garage for over 20 minutes, although he was able to return to the track with a few minutes remaining.
It has already been confirmed that team-mate Daniel Ricciardo will start the race from the back of the grid following the change of several of his engine components.
The newly-contracted Mercedes pairing followed Verstappen in second and third, Lewis Hamilton posting a lap just 0.026s slower than the session-leading RB14, while Valtteri Bottas slotted in less than a tenth behind.
The two Ferrari’s rounded out the top five, Sebastian Vettel leading team-mate Kimi Raikkonen in what has been a relatively subdued Friday for the Scuderia.
Having been fourth and sixth this morning, the relative gaps to the top runners stayed pretty much the same, albeit only a couple tenths shy.
Haas once again led the midfield scramble in sixth and seventh places, Romain Grosjean leading Kevin Magnussen, while the rest of the top ten saw a mix of teams.
Charles Leclerc continued his recent blistering form by ending the day eighth for Sauber, with Nico Hulkenberg and Esteban Ocon took ninth and tenth for Renault and Force India respectively.
After leading FP1 this morning, Daniel Ricciardo endured a tougher session as the Australian could only manage 13th on the timesheets, 1.5 seconds away from Verstappens’ benchmark.
A spin early in session meant he was unable to post a faster time, and instead focused on performing a sequence of race runs for the rest of the afternoon.
It was another tough session for both McLaren and Williams in Germany, Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne sandwiching the Grove-based squads cars in 17th and 20th respectively.
