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Hamilton tops practice once again after rain-hit session - FP2 Summary & Results

Hamilton tops practice once again after rain-hit session - FP2 Summary & Results

19-10-2018 21:34
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Jake Williams-Smith

Lewis Hamilton showed his supreme skill in the wet once more, topping the second practice session of the weekend by over a second. Pierre Gasly was able to show the new Honda power unit was doing well in second with Max Verstappen close behind in third.

The lights went green for FP2 to begin but nobody was going to risk going out with the rain continuing to fall heavily.

Red Bull was the first team to get the entertainment going with some karaoke to keep the mechanics busy, Max Verstappen wasn’t too impressed with their efforts though!

Lando Norris did his best to keep Fernando Alonso happy, bringing the Spaniard a coffee to keep him going.

Brendon Hartley was the first driver to get bored enough to try going out on full wet weather tyres after half of the session expired.

Stoffel Vandoorne was quick to follow him out whilst Hartley decided to stay out for a lap rather than boxing immediately much to the fans delight.

Hartley set the marker first, a 1:58.773s the time to beat.

Ferrari sent Kimi Raikkonen out next, the first of the big teams to blink. Thankfully for an apprehensive-looking Maurizio Arrivabene, the Finn kept it on track and set a 1:53.443s to go top.

The Williams pair were next on track, Sergey Sirotkin able to go quicker than teammate Lance Stroll despite his experience deficit to the Canadian at the Circuit of the Americas.

Pierre Gasly was able to put a lap together that was good enough to knock Raikkonen off of the top spot on his first lap with 20 minutes to go.

Sirotkin was the first to brave it using intermediates and was quickly told he can abort the lap due to the amount of standing water on the track still.

The final 15 minutes saw many drivers brave it on intermediates, the rain finally relenting and cars drying the track enough to get to the crossover point.

Several drivers struggled on the used intermediate tyres. Having used them in FP1 and not wanting to waste another set they might need later in the weekend, many opted to stick to the used sets despite the lack of grip.

He had discussed the pointlessness in going out in the session, but it didn’t stop Hamilton from setting the quickest time of the session on his first attempt, putting himself 1.4s clear of anyone else.

Late improvements from Gasly and Verstappen cut the gap to a single second but they could get no closer.