#CanadianGP FP2: @Max33Verstappen quickest ahead of @CharlesLeclerc. #F1

Verstappen Canadian GP FP2 – Oracle Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen topped the time-sheets in FP2 at the Canadian GP ahead of Ferrari pairing Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz who rounded out the top three.

Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas lead the field onto the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve at the beginning of the second hour-long practice session, although the Finn pitted at the end of his initial tour and remained there for the next 20 minutes as the team worked on his C42 racer.

Bottas’ team-mate Zhou Guanyu went through to set the P1 benchmark of a 1:20.145, which was rapidly beaten by Aston Martin duo Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll – the former was released into the path of Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen when leaving his garage at the start of Free Practice Two.

This forced the Dane to lock his wheels as he avoided hitting Vettel’s AMR22 racer in the pit-lane as the incident is now currently under investigation from the stewards.

BWT Alpine F1 Team’s Esteban Ocon opening stint on the softs lowered the best effort down to 1:16.842 a few moments after the Aston duo came through, just before Verstappen’s initial run – the point’s leader using the C4 yellow side-walled medium compounds as did most of the field during this stage – putting the Dutchman on top setting a 1:15.618.

Verstappen’s first stint lasted 10 tours, with each flying lap following a cool-down tour bringing him additional gains as the Red Bull driver improved to a 1:15.096 then a 1:14.792 and finally a 1:14.532 as the opening 15 minutes concluded.

The reigning world champion then spent the next phase of proceedings in the pits, during which Leclerc closed in to 0.298 seconds adrift with a string of flyers on a similar long run, but instead using the softer C5 red-marked softer rubber.

Just before the mid-way point, Verstappen emerged on the C5 softs for the first time and flew to the session’s best effort, a 1:14.127.

In the other Red Bull RB18 entry, Sergio Perez, who suffered a lock-up at the hairpin and then an off-track excursion in the opening corners during the early proceedings, put in a qualifying simulation time that came in 1.040 seconds off his session-topping team-mate.

Next to put in his qualifying simulation run was Leclerc and the Monegasque driver posted a quick sector two to improve to the second best time, which wound up second and a narrow 0.081 off rival Verstappen.

Sainz followed into third place shortly afterwards on a 1:14.352, whilst Vettel’s own hot-lap on the softs put him fourth and 0.315 seconds behind Verstappen – with the pairing noted by the race stewards for an incident involving driving unnecessarily slow at the pit-exit ahead of their respective qualifying simulation efforts.

The field then switched to their long race data gathering stints, with heavy clouds building and closing in around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, threatening the on-track action at the end of the session, although no rain fell.

BWT Alpine F1 Team’s Fernando Alonso rounded out the top five and ahead of AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly who was sixth and Mercedes’ George Russell who ended the day seventh.

Russell complained of “massive hopping” through the rapid turn nine right-hander during the early proceedings, ahead of his best effort on the softs – a 1:19.971 – during the run of quick times just past the 30 minute-mark.

McLaren’s Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo ended the day eighth and ninth respectively, with the latter’s late-session long-run featured a near-miss of Zhou’s Alfa on the approach to the turn three and four chicane – The Chinese youngster unaware that the McLaren was on a flying lap.

BWT Alpine F1 Team’s Esteban Ocon completed the top ten and almost a second adrift of Verstappen’s benchmark.

The aforementioned Red Bull of Perez wound up 11th and ahead of home-town favourite Stroll who placed 12th in the order for Aston Martin and 13th placed Mercedes of Sir Lewis Hamilton as the latter complained of his F1 W13 being undriveable.

Haas F1 Team pairing Magnussen and Mick Schumacher finished FP2 14th and 15th on the classifications and in-front of Alfa Romeo’s Zhou who took 16th and AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda who was 17th.

Williams Racing duo Alexander Albon and other home race favourite Nicholas Latifi ended the day 18th and 19th respectively as the aforementioned Alfa Romeo of Bottas brought up the rear.

FP2 was briefly interrupted in the earlier stages by a virtual safety car deployment due to a drinks can that was being blown down the track in the blustery conditions, which was retrieved by the marshal.

You can see the full Formula 1 AWS Canadian Grand Prix 2022 Free Practice 2 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2022/races/1113/canada/practice-2.html

#CanadianGP FP1: @Max33Verstappen tops time-sheets ahead of Spanish duo. #F1

#Formula1 AWS #CanadianGP 2022 Preview. #F1