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Charles Leclerc sat out the entire second practice session for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone where Max Verstappen finished quickest to again underline his ongoing superiority.
Ferrari reported an electrical issue on Leclerc’s SF-23 just as the hour-long session started, which was already five minutes late as the track required cleaning following a number of incidents during F2 qualifying.
Despite a strenuous effort to repair the issue, Leclerc’s mechanics were unable to resolve the problem, leaving the Monégasque without crucial running ahead of qualifying on Saturday, particularly with heavy rain forecast for FP3.
Unsurprisingly, two-time F1 champion Max Verstappen finished quickest with a lap of one minute 28.078s, doubling up on Friday after also topping the FP1 timesheet with a 1:28.600s.
At least Leclerc’s Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz threatened the Red Bull driver as the Spaniard finished just 0.022s adrift.
As with the first session, Alex Albon proved his third-best time from the opener was no fluke as the Thai-British driver repeated the feat in FP2, finishing 0.218s behind Verstappen, whose team-mate Sergio Perez was 0.264s adrift in fourth.
Logan Sargeant underlined the pace of the FW45 by posting a personal practice best in his debut campaign as the American was fifth fastest, although was effectively the best of the rest as the American was 0.688s down, a tenth of a second quicker than Lance Stroll in his Aston Martin.
In what was an adventurous session for Stroll, he also reported a broken left mirror and needed to pit for repairs, and then, later on, complained about a stone hitting his finger, claiming it to be “pretty bad”, but he would “keep going”.
The Canadian satisfyingly finished nearly three-tenths of a second quicker than team-mate Fernando Alonso, although the two-time F1 champion was told to “slow down, slow down” during the soft-tyre runs due to debris impacting the front-left corner of his car, causing a puncture.
Maintaining his strong recent form, Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg was seventh quickest, followed by Pierre Gasly in his Alpine and the McLaren of Oscar Piastri.
The session was one of the strongest of the Australian’s debut campaign so far as he was fourth quickest after the early medium-tyre, higher fuel runs before finishing ninth on the soft-tyre outings, 0.848s behind Verstappen.
With part one of the upgrades on his MCL60 first run by team-mate Lando Norris in Austria last weekend, Piastri finished almost three-tenths of a second quicker than the Briton.
With phase two of the updates on his car, Norris’ session was compromised by the need for a change of brake disc on the front-right, leaving him 1.182s adrift of Verstappen, and 14th on the timesheet.
Fellow Britons George Russell and Lewis Hamilton were a miserable 12th and 15th, despite the W14s sporting a new front wing that was expected to propel Mercedes back into the fight.
Neither driver looked at ease throughout the session in which set-ups were changed, with Russell at one stage complaining of his car “sliding all over the place”.
With Leclerc finishing without a time to his name, AlphaTauri duo Yuki Tsunoda and Nyck de Vries were the slowest on track, despite the AT04s possessing a raft of upgrades to arrest what has so far been a dismal season for the team.
De Vries finished with a 1:29.571s, 1.493s behind Verstappen, and ended the session with a heavy front-right lock-up that caused a puncture.
