A Stroll to the top at Silverstone

High temperatures hit Hamilton hard

LEWIS HAMILTON finished fifth in second practice for the British Grand Prix as Racing Point’s Lance Stroll ended the day on top of the time charts.

Hamilton is bidding to win his seventh race at a spectator-less Silverstone, but after trailing Verstappen in the early running, he was three tenths down on Stroll later in the day.

Alexander Albon finished second, but his afternoon ended in the barriers after he lost control of his Red Bull through the right-handed Stowe corner.

Albon, just 0.080 seconds slower than Stroll before his accident, suffered damage to both the left-rear and left-front of his car following the highspeed smash.

The London-born Thai walked away unscathed from the incident, but his Red Bull crew will work long into the evening to ensure his machine is ready for qualifying on Saturday.

Valtteri Bottas, who trails Mercedes team-mate Hamilton by five points, finished third ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Verstappen was fastest in the morning running before finishing a distant 14th in the concluding action of the day.

A car failure prevented Sebastian Vettel from completing any running on Friday morning, and, despite returning to the track for the second session, the four-time world champion could manage only 18th of the 20 runners, 1.58 seconds off the front.

Hamilton started the weekend as the favourite to win on Sunday, but on the basis of Friday’s evidence, the Briton will not have it all his own way as he chases a third win in four races this term.

Traditionally, the Mercedes cars have struggled in high temperatures and with the mercury hitting the mid-thirties here on a sweltering day, there was little for the all-conquering team to shout about.

“It was quite a difficult day,” said Hamilton. “The wind made it really tricky with the car and the balance is not as good as I would have liked so we are going to work on it and figure it out.

“Hopefully we will make some good changes overnight. It is not a disaster but it has definitely been a hard-day driving.”

Racing Point have modelled their machines on last season’s championship-winning Mercedes, and in the absence of team leader Sergio Perez following his positive coronavirus test, Stroll took on the baton for the Silverstone-based team.

The Canadian finished top, with Nico Hulkenberg, deputising for Perez, seventh in the running, six tenths behind his team-mate.

Hulkenberg has been out of action since he was dropped by Renault last year, but the German, a veteran of 177 grands prix starts, could be back in action again here next weekend if Perez is forced to remain in quarantine.

Elsewhere, British driver Lando Norris finished 11th, five spots behind Carlos Sainz in the sister McLaren. George Russell was 17th for Williams.

Meanwhile, Damon Hill believes Hamilton could be left to carry Formula One’s anti-racism baton alone – fearing people will grow tired of the Briton’s campaign.

Hamilton will take a knee ahead of Sunday’s British Grand Prix – and he is set to be joined by a number of drivers. The sport’s bosses have scheduled a slot in the timetable before the Silverstone race to avoid the messy arrangement seen at the past two rounds.

A split, however, has emerged among the grid with as many as eight of the 20 drivers uneasy at performing a gesture associated with the Black Lives Matter movement. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Ferrari driver Charles

Leclerc have said they will continue to stand.

“People don’t like being told what to do,” 1996 world champion Hill said. “They also tire of things quite quickly.

“The support can be there initially but how do you go forward with this? You don’t want to wear out people’s sympathies so it is going to be a challenge to keep the flag flying for Lewis’ cause.

“Maybe he is going to have to do it on his own and move on? It is entirely appropriate for Lewis to carry on.

“Everyone is behind him, everyone gets what he wants to do and the support is there in helping black people achieve their goal of being rid of prejudice and injustices.

“That is a constant battle but there are other causes, too. Does Sebastian Vettel have an initiative to support, for example? Teams want to support charities also.

“For it now onwards to all be about Black Lives Matter is wrong. And if it just becomes about Lewis’ campaign I fear it will be bound solely on him. I would hate to see that happen.”

Hill added: “The future is going to be from Lewis downwards. He is 35 and not a young man anymore. It is their world, not the way my parents saw it, or the elder statesmen see it.”

We are going to work on it and figure it out