Raikkonen posted his best lap of his 103 with 50 minutes remaining, clocking a 1m30.665s on the soft tyre, 0.216 seconds faster than his qualifying time for last weekend’s British Grand Prix.
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Esteban Ocon set the fastest time on the second morning of testing at Silverstone, making good use of his time in the championship-leading Mercedes W07 to complete 59 laps before the lunch break. “We tested many things for the team, which was the most important thing and I tried to give really good feedback and to get the best out of all those laps, because it’s not every day you get the chance to drive a Formula One auto, especially with Red Bull”.
Ocon completed a marathon 139 laps, adding to his 123 laps on day one, while Raikkonen in the rival Ferrari will be content with 102 laps completed.
The new GP2 race victor managed 103 laps, with his best a 1:31.429s on soft tyres to finish third on the timesheets.
The 20-year-old Frenchman only managed seven laps in the morning as Red Bull was forced to replace some cabling inside the vehicle, but managed another 40 in the afternoon. The Finn ended the day almost a full second clear of Haas rookie Santino Ferrucci – the American enjoying his second full day in the VF-16.
Force India’s 17-year-old development driver Nikita Mazepin finished 0.896s behind Raikkonen having set his time on super-soft tyres, and 0.203s ahead of McLaren reserve Stoffel Vandoorne, whose best lap from his 114 was run on Pirelli’s soft compound.
Williams driver Valtteri Bottas, who was equipped with the team’s double-decker rear wing again in the final hour of the session, was sixth quickest.
Palmer stopped on track just after the chequered flag was brought out.
Young drivers Sergio Sette Camara and Jordan King rounded out the top 10 for Toro Rosso and Manor respectively, while Pascal Wehrlein managed 128 laps but was the slowest of the day’s runners as he focused on developing Pirelli’s 2017 compounds in a 2014-spec Mercedes.
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Pascal Wehrlein returned to the track in Mercedes’ 2014 vehicle as he continued his testing programme with tyre supplier Pirelli. He completed 38 laps over the course of the morning and finished the session with a time 0.013s quicker than GP3 and Ferrari Academy driver Charles Leclerc.
