@Carlossainz55 quickest ahead of @LewisHamilton in #BritishGP FP2. #F1

Sainz British GP FP2 – Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz topped the afternoon FP2 session at the British GP ahead of Mercedes’ Sir Lewis Hamilton and McLaren’s Lando Norris who completed the top three in-front of their home fans.

 

 

Sainz posted the benchmark of a 1:28.942 on the C3 red side-walled Soft compound on his qualifying simulation run and was 0.163 seconds faster than Hamilton in second with Norris a further 0.176 adrift in third.

 

Reigning world champion and points leader Max Verstappen placed fourth for Red Bull and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc rounded out the top five and was 0.462 seconds off his session-topping team-mate.

 

After damp conditions greeted the drivers in the opening practice session, the afternoon featured a full hour of drier running at the Silverstone Circuit.

 

Sainz was the first driver to emerge with his F1-75 racer on the yellow-marked medium C2 tyres and was soon followed by Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel and Norris on the harder white-branded C1 harder rubber.

 

With all drivers out on track in the opening ninety seconds, the benchmark efforts kept tumbling as Sainz, then Alfa’s Valtteri Bottas and AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda took turns setting the pace.

 

The downside of the busy track, as Red Bull’s Verstappen slowed out of Stowe to complete a system’s check, was a battle for track position and clear air – as Mercedes’ George Russell was notably delayed by Tsunoda through Luffield.

 

The Alpine’s and Williams entries emerged immediately on the C3 softer compounds, which allowed Esteban Ocon to momentarily hold first place with a 1:33.081 four minutes in.

 

He was then knocked off by team-mate Fernando Alonso, the double world champion running 0.15 seconds faster until Vettel claimed top spot by 1.6 seconds in his updated Aston Martin AMR22 racer.

 

It was after five minutes that Ferrari and Red Bull rose to the top.

 

Leclerc lowered the benchmark, posting a 1:30.784 to pip team-mate Sainz by 0.014 seconds and found six-tenths over title-rival Verstappen.

 

Sainz backed off on a cool tour and then pushed again to get down to a 1:29.962, moving the Spaniard eight tenths clear of Ferrari team-mate Leclerc.

 

Hamilton jumped to third on the same medium rubber despite complaints of his Mercedes F1 W13 racer bouncing excessively at higher speed.

 

Verstappen then did enough to split the two Ferrari F1-75 entries after 11 minutes, before Leclerc improved again to reclaim top of the pile, setting a 1:29.639 to lead Sainz, Red Bull’s Verstappen and Sergio Perez.

 

Verstappen improved once more to split the Prancing Horses, his 1:29.462 moving him within three-tenths of Leclerc.

 

In a busy opening third of Free Practice 2, Leclerc then lowered the benchmark to a 1:29.462 on the mediums to end the yellow-marked running as the pace-setter with a tenth over team-mate Sainz.

 

The track activity went quiet as the cars returned to the pits, which gave way to qualifying simulation runs on the C3 red-marked softer tyres, with Norris moving to the top immediately.

 

The McLaren driver’s 1:29.118 put him 0.3 seconds quicker than Leclerc before Sainz had two shots at setting the supreme pace.

 

The Spaniard initially hit a 1:29.014 to demote Norris as his Ferrari F1-75 had a vibrant flo-vis paint on the rear wing -the Ferrari crew shaving off some carbon fibre during the brief lull.

 

Sainz, like Alonso and McLaren’s birthday-boy Daniel Ricciardo, had to be wary of floor damage after running over the exit kerbs at Copse Corner, but he then improved again to set the benchmark pace.

 

Sainz would remain at the top of the order as he ultimately posted the session’s best effort with a 1:28.942 whilst Hamilton climbed to second and 0.163 off – before losing a part of his wing in the closing stages having also encountered trouble at the Copse kerbs.

 

Norris was unable to escape trouble-free also, as his McLaren MCL36 racer was dropped off it’s rear jack and then in confusion, the mechanic on the left-rear tried to put on the tyre the wrong way around.

 

Still, Norris wound up 0.013 seconds behind his fellow British-compatriot whilst Verstappen – whose running was disrupted by a red-light warning and excessive noise in the cockpit of his RB18 entry as he suspected parts were rubbing – placed fourth in the order.

 

Leclerc was 0.25 off title-rival Verstappen in fifth, whilst Alonso took his Alpine A522 racer to sixth and in-front of Perez and Mercedes’ George Russell.

 

McLaren’s Ricciardo ended the day in ninth, having been the quickest runner on the white side-walled C1 harder tyres.

 

Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, who caused the session closing red-flag in a damp opening practice session when he got beached in the gravel trap at Copse Corner, completed the top ten.

 

Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN’s opening practice session topper Bottas placed outside the top ten in 11th and ahead of Alpine F1 Team’s Ocon who came 12th on the time-sheets.

 

Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon finished the day 13th and in-front of Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Gunayu who took 14th and Aston Martin’s Vettel who was 15th.

 

Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly ended FP2 16th and 18th respectively as Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen split the duo in 17th.

 

The Haas VF-22 entry of Mick Schumacher and Williams Racing’s Nicholas Latifi brought up the rear.

 

You can see the full Formula 1 Lenovo British Grand Prix 2022 Free Practice 2 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2022/races/1114/great-britain/practice-2.html

 

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@ValtteriBottas tops mixed-conditioned #BritishGP FP1 session. #F1

#F1 @Lenovo #BritishGP 2022 Preview. #Formula1 #BritishGrandPrix