Hamilton edges Rosberg in British GP second practice - MotorSportsTalk

Lewis Hamilton has finished at the top of the timesheets in the second practice session for this weekend’s British Grand Prix, but the Briton was left walking back to his garage after a failure on his car forced him to stop out on track.

The Mercedes driver posted a fastest lap time of 1:34.508 to edge out teammate Nico Rosberg by two-tenths of a second, having trailed the German in FP1 earlier today.

However, with around half an hour to go in the session, Hamilton’s car came to a halt on the exit of turn two, thus robbing him of precious track time and race simulation runs after he reportedly lost oil pressure. Nevertheless, he had already done enough on his qualifying simulation run to give him top spot ahead of Rosberg.

Ferrari once again appeared to be ‘best of the rest’ as Fernando Alonso slotted into third place. The Spaniard will be hoping to score his second podium finish of the season at Silverstone this weekend, and could be well placed to win should both Mercedes hit trouble like they did in Canada.

That said, Red Bull will also be in the running for big points. After a terrible weekend in Austria, both Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel appear to have got their mojo back. They finished fourth and fifth respectively in FP2 ahead of Williams’ Valtteri Bottas.

Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen also put in a solid display for McLaren, finishing inside the top ten. After a difficult start to the season, the British team will be hoping to make up for it on home soil.

Hamilton was not the only driver to hit trouble during the session. Jean-Eric Vergne’s session ended ten minutes early when his front-left wheel came loose. Thankfully it remained on the car, but he did have to pull over and halt his running. Valtteri Bottas’ engine cover broke off towards the end of the session while he was running down Hangar Straight, giving Williams yet another repair job to work on.

It’s business as usual for Mercedes, but as we saw in Austria, that can all change for qualifying. Be sure to join us at 8am ET on Saturday for all of the action from Silverstone.

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An IndyCar executive said there is “absolutely” disappointment that its long-awaited video game recently was delayed beyond its target date, but the series remains optimistic about the new title.

“Well, I don’t know how quick it will be, but the whole situation is important to us,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said during a news conference Monday morning to announce IndyCar’s NTT title sponsorship. “Motorsport Games has spent a lot of money, a lot of effort to create an IndyCar title. What we’ve seen of that effort, which is not completely obvious, is very reassuring.

“I think it’s going to be outstanding. That’s our shared objective, that when it is released, it’s just widely accepted. A great credit both to IndyCar racing, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, something that our fans love.”

In June 2021, IndyCar announced a new partnership with Motorsport Games to create and distribute an IndyCar video game for the PC and Xbox and PlayStation consoles in 2023.

But during an earnings call last week, Motorsport Games said the IndyCar game had been delayed to 2024 to ensure high quality.

Somewhat compounding the delay is that IndyCar’s license for iRacing expired after the end of the 2022 season because of its exclusive agreement with Motorsport Games.

That’s resulted in significant changes for IndyCar on iRacing, which had provided a high-profile way for the series to stay visible during its 2020 shutdown from the pandemic. (Players still can race an unbranded car but don’t race on current IndyCar tracks, nor can they stream).

That’s helped ratchet up the attention on having a video game outlet for IndyCar.

“I wish we had an IndyCar title 10 years ago,” said Miles, who has been working with the organization since 2013. “We’ve been close, but we’ve had these I think speed bumps.”

IndyCar is hopeful the Motorsports Game edition will be ready at the start of 2024. Miles hinted that beta versions could be unveiled to reporters ahead of the time “to begin to show the progress in a narrow way to make sure we’ve got it right, to test the progress so that we’re ready when they’re ready.”

It’s been nearly 18 years since the release of the most recent IndyCar video game for console or PC.

“(We) better get it right,” Miles said. “It’s something we’re very close to and continue to think about what it is to make sure we get it over the line in due course.”