#USGP FP2: @SChecoPerez tops time-sheets ahead of @LandoNorris. #F1

Red Bull’s Sergio Perez was quickest in the afternoon FP2 session at the US GP ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton third after losing his effort for a track limits infringement and traffic issues leaving championship leader Max Verstappen in eighth.

Hamilton’s 1:34.842 would have put the Briton ahead of Perez by 0.104 seconds, but the Mercedes driver ran wide at turn 19, invalidating his lap-time on his qualifying simulation stint at the mid-way point of the hour-long session, which costed him top spot and left Perez heading the order with a 1:34.946.

In hot conditions at the Circuit of the Americas, the field at first emerged on the C2 white side-walled harder tyres, with Alfa Romeo Racing’s Antonio Giovinazzi setting the initial benchmark of a 1:38.555 on the C3 yellow-marked medium compounds.

Alpine F1 Team’s Esteban Ocon, Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll all enjoyed small stints at the top of the pile during the first stints, before FP1’s pace-setter Valtteri Bottas used his C3 mediums to lower the benchmark to a 1:38.887.

A few minutes the later the Mercedes driver was knocked off top spot by Perez’s 1:35.883 and the duo continued to trade quicker efforts over the next stage of proceedings, with Perez’s 1:35.716 posted approaching the 15-minute mark then held P1 until the drivers began switching over to the C4 red-branded softs for their qualifying simulation runs.

Stroll lead the charge, putting his Aston Martin into top spot on a 1:35.561 just over the 20th minute mark.

Bottas then reclaimed P1 with a 1:35.360, but this was much slower than Hamilton’s best – posted a few minutes later.

But after Hamilton had lost his effort for exceeding track limits on his initial flyer on the softs, he remained on it and eventually set a quick effort of a 1:35.310 – the red-marked tyre a long way past it’s best after completing a second, slow-cool down lap in the sweltering conditions at the Circuit of the Americas.

Before Hamilton posted a legal time on the softs, Perez had taken back top of the time-sheets just before the half-an-hour mark with his 1:34.946, with Norris then taking second place on his hot-lap on the softs to end up 0.257 seconds off the Mexican.

Norris had to return to the pits for a short period after reporting “something loose around my elbow” that meant he could not “turn properly”.

Red Bull did not get to see how Verstappen would slot into the fight at the front of the times, as the Dutchman abandoned his soft tyre stint – frustrated with his team’s traffic management.

Verstappen was preparing to begin his hot-lap on the softer compounds when several cars moved ahead of him and the championship leader was forced to complete another preparation tour – after which he posted the session’s purple sector one before backing off and pitting after encountering traffic that jumped in-front of him and those cars then all on cool-down laps back to the pits.

The Dutchman furiously told Red Bull he was “boxing – **** this” to concentrate on his long race run as he was “over this short run”.

In the earlier stages, Verstappen and Hamilton raced through the last corner and down the main straight, then continued alongside each other into the tightening uphill left of turn one – a situation where Red Bull told Verstappen to “ignore” Hamilton’s move to get ahead.

The order remained stable throughout the long running that concluded the afternoon session, where the teams gathered data on tyre longevity to understand whether they can get through the Grand Prix on a one or two-stop strategy in the hot conditions in Austin.

Bottas was fourth ahead of McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo, with Stroll demoted to sixth, in-front of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Verstappen – who’s best effort remained his quickest on the medium rubber stint in the early proceedings.

The other Ferrari of Carlos Sainz and Giovinazzi rounded out the top ten for Alfa Romeo.

Alpine F1 Team’s Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso ended FP2 in 11th and 13th respectively with the latter spinning off at turn 19 with just over three minutes remaining, as the Spaniard shot off backwards at the quick left-hander after touching the outside kerbs.

With the tailwind challenging the drivers in that corner, Alonso was rapidly turned around and slid rearwards through the run-off area and then the gravel trap, tapping the barriers as he came to a stop and picked up minor rear wing end-plate damage. AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly split the Alpine duo in 12th.

Alfa Romeo Racing’s Raikkonen was 14th and in-front of Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel who finished FP2 15th and AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda 16th.

Haas F1 Team pairing Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin ended the day 17th and at the rear respectively with Williams duo Nicholas Latifi and George Russell sandwiched in-between the two.

At the end of the session Giovinazzi also stopped on the inside of the final corner as the cars returned to the pits before he sharply turned his Alfa Romeo C41 racer left and toured back towards his Alfa garage at slow-speed.

You can see the full Formula 1 Aramco United States Grand Prix 2021 Free Practice 2 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2021/races/1102/united-states/practice-2.html

#USGP FP1: @ValtteriBottas leads @MercedesAMGF1 one-two. #F1

#Formula1 Aramco #UnitedStatesGP 2021 Preview. #F1 #USGP