#QatarGP FP2: @ValtteriBottas quickest ahead of @PierreGASLY. #F1

Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas topped the evening FP2 session at the Qatar GP ahead of AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly who was second and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen who rounded out the top three.

Just after night fell on the Losail International Circuit, Friday’s Free Practice 2 session went green, with Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen leading the field out on track and posting the first effort in the early proceedings on the C1 white side-walled harder compounds.

Raikkonen’s 1:41.721 was immediately beaten by Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz’s initial time of a 1:26.364 – a full effort on the harder rubber compared to the Finn’s early installation effort.

The top benchmark tumbled and was swapped around during the opening 15 minutes of the session, during which Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, on an out-lap momentarily got in team-mate Bottas’ way as they approached the hairpin of turn six, with the world championship taking an excursion into the run-off area as a result.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda and Alpine F1 Team’s Fernando Alonso all had small spells at the head of the times before Verstappen posted his initial hot-lap – a 1:24.285 on the C2 yellow-marked mediums.

Tsunoda, running the same tyre, then went quicker on a 1:24.233 before Verstappen, who’s stint continued, moved back to P1 with a 1:23.743.

A few minutes later, Hamilton and Bottas, also using the mediums, jumped in-front – the former going fastest with a 1:23.604 before Bottas edged the world champion on a 1:23.324 before the action settled down as the first quarter of proceedings ended.

After the brief pause, the drivers emerged for their qualifying simulation runs with the C3 red-branded softer compounds.

Bottas was the first of the top running drivers to do so, as the Finn set a 1:23.154 that beat his initial first place benchmark, but lost his effort for exceeding track limits out of turn seven – the Mercedes driver unaware that Race Director Michael Masi’s changed instructions issued after opening practice declared any driver going off the purple and red kerbs at any corner, not just the five initially observed by the FIA, would have the lap questioned invalidated.

But Bottas nonetheless improved with another quick lap as he went for a second flyer on the softs and a few minutes later, posted a 1:23.148 just after the halfway point.

Hamilton at that time, set an effort, which pit him third, whilst Gasly moved into second place with a 1:23.357 and Red Bull Racing’s Sergio Perez backed out of his flying tour on the softs after encountering traffic.

Verstappen’s qualifying simulation stint began with under 25 minutes left on the clock, the Red Bull driver, who topped opening practice, went very wide coming out on the turn 10 left-long hand corner, losing time ending up 0.431 seconds behind Bottas.

After a brief stop in the pits, Verstappen emerged on the softer rubber again and improved once more with a personal best, but with a slightly lower time in sector three, to close into a 0.350 behind Bottas a relegating Hamilton to fourth.

Behind the top three came McLaren’s Lando Norris in fifth, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll in sixth, then AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda seventh and Perez eighth – who posted a flyer on the softs and wound up 0.639 adrift of Bottas’ Qatar GP FP2 benchmark.

The Mexican lost a heap of time in the final 20 minutes of running as Red Bull work on his DRS activation pod in the garage, after both of the Honda-powered RB16B racers were spotted with their rear wings flapping at the end of the main straight.

Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel, who was frustrated to encounter both Hamilton and Perez travelling slowly on his hot-lap as he began his qualifying simulation run in the middle of FP2, ending the day ninth, whilst Sainz completed the top ten.

The Spaniard was another driver to run wide on the astroturf, which were parallel to the run-off beyond turn ten, kicking up a plume of dust and sand, having gone wide there to overtake Vettel.

Alonso finished the day 12th in-front of Leclerc, who was hit with a $200 fine for going 1.6kph over the 80kph pit-lane speed limit at the entrance with 25 minutes remaining as McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo was 14th in the classification,

Alfa Romeo Racing’s Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi were 15th and 17th respectively as Williams Racing’s George Russell split the pairing in 16th on the order.

Williams Racing’s Nicholas Latifi ended the day a low 18th and in-front of Haas F1 Team pairing Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin who brought up the rear with the latter unable to post a lap-time due to suffering floor damage in FP1 and missed out on the session.

You can see the full Formula 1 Ooredoo Qatar Grand Prix 2021 Free Practice 2 Results Classification here at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2021/races/1105/qatar/practice-2.html

***In news that broke an hour ago, Mercedes request for “Right to Review” into the defensive manoeuvre Max Verstappen used to keep the lead from championship-rival Lewis Hamilton on lap 48 at last weekend’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix was denied by the sport’s governing body, the FIA.

After announcing the decision the stewards stated: “There will always be some angles of video footage, because of limits in both technology and bandwidth, that are unavailable at the time. Whether or not stewards’ decisions are considered to be right or wrong, and just as with referees’ decisions in soccer, it does not seem desirable to be able to review any or all such in‐race discretionary decisions up to two weeks after the fact and the stewards therefore seriously doubt that the intent of the Right of Review in the ISC [International Sporting Code] is to enable competitors to seek a review of such discretionary decisions that do not follow on from a formal inquiry by the stewards and do not result in a published document.” Credit to F1 for the quote.

Although the race stewards agreed the new onboard camera footage was new and relevant, they disagreed that it was significant in this case.

“The stewards often must make a decision quickly and on a limited set of information. At the time of the decision, the stewards felt they had sufficient information to make a decision, which subsequently broadly aligned with the immediate post‐race comments of both drivers involved. Had they felt that the forward‐facing camera video from Car 33 [Verstappen] was crucial in order to take a decision, they would simply have placed the incident under investigation – to be investigated after the race – and rendered a decision after this video was available. They saw no need to do so.” Credit to FIA for the quote.

#QatarGP FP1: @Max33Verstappen heads time-sheets in-front of @PierreGASLY. #F1

#Formula1 Ooredoo #QatarGP 2021 Preview – #F1 #QatarGP