Mercedes explain Bottas' FP2 problem!

Valtteri Bottas topped FP2 in Northamptonshire, beating his team mate by less than a tenth and setting a marker for the weekend, but he did suffer an issue that stopped him from running for around ten minutes towards the end of the session.

The Finn set a time of 1:26:732, just ahead of Lewis Hamilton, but he could only manage 24 laps, ten less than his teammate, due to the issue, which was thought to be something to do with a spark plug.

Mercedes' technical director James Allison played down the issue, telling Sky Sports F1: “I haven’t really heard from the engineers there.

“I think it is a discretion if the better part of valor type change, making sure we absolutely don’t hurt the PU.

“It is certainly a sensor issue rather than a plug issue.”