Lewis Hamilton topped the times ahead of his Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg in Friday’s twice red-flagged second free practice session ahead of this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix.
The 29-year-old Briton, who was second behind Rosberg in the morning session, clocked a best lap of one minute 49.189 seconds to finish clear at the top of the times on a typically incident-filled day at the old Spa-Francorchamps circuit in the Belgian Ardennes.
Rosberg was six-tenths of a second slower than Hamilton to finish second ahead of two-time champion Fernando Alonso of Ferrari, Felipe Massa and Jenson Button of McLaren on a rare dry day at the track.
Valtteri Bottas was sixth for Williams ahead of Russian rookie Daniil Kvyat of Toro Rosso, Australian Daniel Ricciardo for Red Bull, Danish rookie Jan Magnussen in the second McLaren and Nico Hulkenberg for Force India.
The session began under a heavy black cloud and produced two major ‘red flag’ accidents, but without anyone being injured.
The first came when Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado lost control of his Lotus car in the approach to Pouhon and hit the barriers heavily.
He was quickly in communication with the team via radio to say he was unhurt, but his car was seriously damaged and he was out for the rest of the session.
The second red flag came when Mexican Esteban Gutierrez spun off at Blanchimont in his Sauber.
Ricciardo, Red Bull’s sole representative in second practice as four-time champion Sebastian Vettel waited for an engine change, also ran off the circuit without causing any damage.
With 40 minutes to go, all the leading drivers switched to softer tyres and Hamilton stayed on top while Frenchman Romain Grosjean reported that his Lotus was “all over the place” and difficult to drive.
Earlier, Mercedes executive director Toto Wolff gave an insight into how the team had rebuilt rapport after their discord in Budapest.
“It was a matter of the words used, not the principle,” said Wolff. “We probably shouldn’t have said to Nico that Lewis was going to let him through, we should have said he won’t make your life difficult.”
Published in The Express Tribune, August 23rd, 2014.
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