Sainz French GP FP2 – Carlos Sainz headed the time-sheets ahead of team-mate Charles Leclerc in a Ferrari one-two in FP2 at the French GP as points-leader Max Verstappen completed the top three for Red Bull.
Sainz posted the benchmark of a 1:32.527 on the C4 red side-walled softer compounds and ended up 0.101 seconds faster than team-mate Leclerc as Verstappen and a further 0.550 seconds behind the Spaniard.
In the second 60-minute session running in scorching, cloudless conditions at the Circuit Paul Ricard, Alfa Romeo pairing Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu lead the field out.
Bottas posted the early benchmark of a 1:36.887, with all the initial stints of the pack running on the C3 yellow-marked medium rubber.
Zhou, Haas F1 Team’s Mick Schumacher and Alpine’s Esteban Ocon all set faster times on their first hot-laps, with the other A522 entry of Fernando Alonso ending the opening five minutes at the top of the pile with a 1:35.531 on the mediums.
After the ten-minute mark, Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen shot to the head of the times on a 1:35.586, before he was rapidly demoted by Mercedes’ George Russell’s 1:34.810 effort.
The season’s front-two – Ferrari and Red Bull – were yet to emerge at this stage, before Leclerc came out just before the session reached 15 minutes and on his initial flying lap went straight to the top of the order with a 1:34.182, which immediately put the Monegasque driver 0.6 clear of the field.
Verstappen emerged a few minutes later after the Ferrari driver and as he done so in FP1 and at many practice sessions in 2022, immediately grabbed P1, posting a 1:34.172 having done two warm-up tours on the mediums.
This topped the time-sheets at the end of FP2’s 20th-minute mark, at which point, Sainz who missed the opening third as the Scuderia changed the floor of his F1-75 racer, went out straight on the C4 red-branded softs.
The Spaniard scored purple in all three sectors to take P1 on a 1:33.332 with a 0.850 improvement over Verstappen’s best time on the mediums.
A few minutes later, Leclerc returned on the softer tyres, which he used to jump his team-mate with a 1:33.136 as he edged-out Sainz in sector one and three, whilst matching him in sector two to be 0.186 clear.
Sainz pitted after his initial soft hot-lap and Ferrari made a few adjustments, he rejoined on the same set of C4 compounds.
Now just after the mid-way point, Sainz gained significantly on Leclerc’s effort in all-three sectors to fly back to the top on a 1:32.527 – picking up a slip-stream from AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly as he ran down the main-straight to finish his tour.
At this stage of proceedings, Verstappen who emerged again to run on the softs for the first time, but suffered under-steer through the technical part at the end of sector one, meant he lapped well-off the Ferrari’s pace.
Verstappen started off 0.247 seconds adrift of Sainz having thought his RB18 racer through turns three and four, but then lost another quarter of a second to wound up 0.550 seconds off the Ferrari driver on a 1:33.077.
Running behind Verstappen, Leclerc like team-mate Sainz previously, also pitted before emerging on a second stint on the softs.
There he gained 0.1 seconds on Sainz’s best effort in the opening segment before losing time on the rest of the flyer – all with personal bests – to wound up 0.101 seconds off.
At this stage with just over 20 minutes left on the clock, Mercedes’ Sir Lewis Hamilton moved to fourth with is qualifying simulation run on the softs – as the seven-time world champion made his initial on-track appearance in FP2 after sitting out opening practice for Formula E World Champion Nyck De Vries to pilot the F1 W13.
But Hamilton was demoted back a spot by Mercedes team-mate Russell with both Silver Arrows 0.764 and 0.990 seconds adrift of Sainz’s benchmark in fourth and fifth places respectively.
McLaren’s Lando Norris placed sixth on the time-sheets ahead of home Grand Prix favourite Gasly who took seventh, with Magnussen in eighth, the other MCL36 entry of Daniel Ricciardo in ninth and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez completing the top ten.
Several drivers suffered off-track moments, with Schumacher’s the wildest of the lot when the German lost the rear of his VF-22 racer on the turn-in for Le Beausset and spun off across the large run-off area before halting just before the barriers, which meant he was able to return to the pits.
Russell ran heavily over the kerbs at the exit of Le Beausset a few moments after, but unlike Verstappen at the same spot in opening practice the Briton quickly pulled left to try and avoid damaging the floor of his F1 W13 racer.
Magnussen later did run wide on the exit of the second corner and was also concerned the kerbs had damaged his VF-22, whilst Russell also caught a snap through the turns three and four chicane and darted through the run-off area claiming he could not “get to the bollard” far to the left in the run-off as required by the race director’s demand.
BWT Alpine F1 Team’s Alonso finished the day outside the top ten in 11th place as Alfa Romeo’s Bottas placed 12th in the order.
Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll ended FP2 in 13th and 15th places respectively as Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda sandwiched the pairing in 14th.
Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon was 16th and ahead of the 17th-placed Alfa Romeo C41 of Zhou.
BWT Alpine F1 Team’s Ocon finished the day in 18th and in-front of Haas F1 Team’s Schumacher and Williams Racing’s Nicholas Latifi who brought up the rear.
You can see the Formula 1 Lenovo Grand Prix De France 2022 Free Practice 2 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2022/races/1116/france/practice-2.html
Catch up on the earlier FP1 session report plus this weekend’s race preview at the links below:
#FrenchGP FP1: @CharlesLeclerc tops time-sheets ahead of @Max33Verstappen. #F1
#Formula1 @Lenovo Grand Prix De France 2022 Preview. #F1 #FrenchGP
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