#MiamiGP FP2: @Max33Verstappen tops time-sheets ahead of @ScuderiaFerrari duo. #F1

Verstappen Miami GP FP2 – Red Bull’s Max Verstappen topped the FP2 session at the Miami GP ahead of Ferrari pairing Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc who rounded out the top three with the latter causing a red flag with eight minutes remaining after crashing at turn seven and breaking his front-wing.

The reigning world champion posted the benchmark of a 1:27.433 on the C4 red side-walled softer compounds and was 0.385 seconds in-front of Sainz with Leclerc a further 0.468 adrift in third.

The Ferrari’s were the first to break into the 1:31’s bracket at the beginning of the session, Sainz set a 1:31.787 before he was beaten by Leclerc by three tenths in the initial stints.

This was still slower than Mercedes’ George Russell’s time-topping FP1 effort, although Red Bull’s Sergio Perez eventually brought the pace much closer with his 1:30.757, but this was trounced by Verstappen on a 1:30.146.

Sainz posted a 1:30.128, just three-thousandths off Russell’s 1:30.125 opening practice benchmark, but Leclerc then broke through with a 1:29.497 to jump to P1.

Verstappen got closer to the Ferrari driver, falling just a tenth adrift on his next effort as the Dutchman struggled with his head-rest catching on his helmet, but another push sent Verstappen to the top posting a 1:29.380.

The initial phase of running was mostly conducted on the C3 yellow-marked mediums, and the McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri raised it up a bit by beginning their qualifying simulations on the softs.

Norris posted 1:28.741, which withstood a siege as the top time for a fair amount of time on the soft tyre runs, as Piastri was just six-tenths off his team-mate on his initial effort.

Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and Sainz then took turns in second place, but Norris was able to hold onto P1 – particularly as Leclerc locking-up denied the Monegasque driver a chance to get a purple sector two and snatch the top of the leaderboard from the Briton.

Verstappen then ended Norris’s spell as top of the order with a 1:28.255, taking the best sector two effort, although Sainz came close to beating his former Toro Rosso team-mate – just 0.06 under.

The Dutchman lowered the benchmark even more, 1:27.930, which stood as the session-topping effort before the field progressed into traditional long race data-gathering runs for the final 20 minutes.

With 10-minutes remaining, the long race-runs were interrupted when Leclerc went front-on into the wall at turn seven, skating on the track surface with skid marks as the rear wheels of his SF-23 racer locked.

This caused a five-minute delay as Leclerc’s Ferrari was recovered, although the session resumed with four minutes and 20 seconds remaining for the drivers to collect long-run data.

Leclerc, who was given a new gearbox prior to FP2, remained in third place behind Verstappen and Sainz. Perez took fourth, and 0.489 seconds off his time-topping Red Bull team-mate.

Alonso completed the top five having overcome Norris’s solid initial attempt on the softs, as the McLaren driver was sixth quickest in the classification.

Mercedes’ Sir Lewis Hamilton overcame some wild moments particularly at the turn 14-15 chicane to finish seventh and a tenth quicker than Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll as Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon completed the top 10.

The other Alpine A523 entry of Pierre Gasly finished the day outside the top 10 in 11th place.

Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen who suffered a spin and clipped the barrier at turn 15, but managed to get away with only losing a part of his front-wing end-plate, placed 12th and ahead of Alfa Romeo duo Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas who were 13th and 14th rescpectively.

FP1 time-topper Russell finished FP2 in 15th for the Silver Arrows and in-front of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri who took 16th and Haas F1 Team’s Nico Hulkenberg who was 17th.

Scuderia AlphaTauri pairing Yuki Tsunoda and Nyck de Vries ended the day in 18th and 19th respectively as Williams Racing’s Logan Sargeant brought up the rear.

You can see the full Formula 1 Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix 2023 Free Practice 2 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2023/races/1208/miami/practice-2.html

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