Max fourth on Friday of 70th Anniversary Grand Prix: 'A good day'

Published on 07 August 2020 by Stefan Meens

Max Verstappen clocked the fourth fastest lap time in the second free practice session of the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix. Mercedes dominated at Silverstone with Lewis Hamilton leading Valtteri Bottas. Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo completed the top three.

“It was a good Friday. We were able to work through our program, which makes me happy”, explains Max post-practice. “The gap to the Mercedes is still big, but that was expected. You can’t bridge a gap in a few days.”

Like during last week’s British Grand Prix, tyres are a hot topic in the paddock. Max: “Because the compounds are softer, the degradation is a lot higher. I think a one-stop race will be almost impossible, so I’m expecting a lot of two-stoppers. I think it will probably be a lonely race again.”

At the start of the session, at 2pm local time, the top teams take their time before venturing out on track. Bottas is the first, twenty minutes into the session. Moments later, both Max and Lewis Hamilton leave their pitbox for the first time. They are the last of the twenty drivers to do so.

The Mercedes trade places at the front with ultimately Lewis Hamilton setting the fastest lap of the two Silver Arrows. He does so on the medium Pirelli compound.

With 40 minutes left, Max heads out on the soft tyres. His 1:26.437 is his fastest lap of the session and grants him fourth place.

In the final fifteen minutes, with only nine completed laps thusfar, Max heads out on track again. This time, he is sporting the medium Pirellis to work on the RB16’s race set-up.

Meanwhile, Sebastian Vettel has parked his Ferrari due to an engine or gearbox issue, as highlighted by his car leaking fluids. The session ends under a red flag after Antonio Giovinazzi’s Alfa Romeo has come to a stand still.

70th Anniversary GP contest: win a Red Bull Racing 2020 backpack!