Vettel puts Ferrari on top in FP2, Verstappen crashes 

Sebastian Vettel moved Ferrari to the top of the timesheets in Formula 1 British Grand Prix second practice, as Red Bull’s Max Verstappen crashed out. 

The new F1 world championship leader turned in a 1m27.552s on Pirelli’s Soft tyre compound to top the afternoon session, though he failed to match the pace set by closest title rival Lewis Hamilton in FP1. 

Vettel finished 0.187s clear of home-favourite Hamilton - who was not entirely happy with his W09 after reporting gearshift issues during the early stages of second practice - and the second Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas. 

Austrian Grand Prix victor Verstappen brought out a brief red flag period just 15 minutes into the session, having hit the barriers on the exit of Luffield. Following on from the suspected gearbox issue that brought his FP1 to a premature end, Verstappen suffered broken rear suspension on his RB14 which subsequently forced the Dutchman to miss the remainder of the session.

Kimi Raikkonen finished nearly 0.5s behind his Ferrari teammate in fifth and was almost the same margin clear of the lead Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo, while Fernando Alonso recovered from a low-key opening practice for McLaren to sit best of the rest in sixth - albeit 1.7s off the pace. 

Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg beat the Force India duo of Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez to the seventh-quickest time, with Charles Leclerc continuing his impressive form to round out the top 10, despite spinning his Sauber in the closing stages. 

Outside of the top 10, Carlos Sainz ended the session with the 11th-fastest time, ahead of Kevin Magnussen’s Haas. Pierre Gasly was restricted to just 16 laps before pulling off to the side of the track with an issue, though the Toro Rosso driver still managed a time good enough for 13th. 

Marcus Ericsson led Sauber teammate Leclerc in the opening session but was unable to match the rookie in the afternoon, falling 0.5s adrift in 14th. He finished ahead of the Williams pair of Lance Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin, as well as Stoffel Vandoorne’s McLaren, who ended a lowly 17th. 

Behind Verstappen, Romain Grosjean propped up the timesheets having been forced to miss the session after a heavy DRS-induced crash at Turn 1 during FP1 prompted a chassis change.