@Max33Verstappen outpaces @Charles_Leclerc in #RussianGP FP2. #F1

Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen pipped Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to top Free Practice Two at the Russian GP.

 

 

Verstappen was sitting fourth on the time-sheets in the first part of the 90 minute session using the yellow-marked medium compounds, and a quarter of a second adrift of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, with Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton only one thousandths quicker.

 

Leclerc was the first of the front running drivers to post a time on soft rubber to grab top of the classification, setting a 1:33.497 on his initial hot lap and improved by six and a half tenths on his previous best effort.

 

With 44 minutes left on the clock, Verstappen crossed the line to post a 1:33.162 benchmark, which put the Dutchman 0.335 seconds ahead of Leclerc despite admitting his final sector was not perfect.

 

Verstappen, who amongst all the Honda-powered drivers, was hit with a five-grid-placed penalty due to a newly upgraded Honda engine, posted fast sector one and three times on his flyer that stood as the benchmark of the afternoon.

 

Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas was quickest in the second sector to finish the day third on the time-sheets overall.

 

The Silver Arrows duo were part of the last drivers to post hot laps, with Bottas out-pacing team-mate Lewis Hamilton by 0.152 seconds.

 

Hamilton posted his time just before Bottas and momentarily held third spot before being pipped by his team-mate.

 

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel only improved by 0.104 seconds on his flyer compared to his run on the mediums, leaving the German 1.039 seconds adrift in fifth place.

 

Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly was sixth quickest and beat Racing Point’s Sergio Perez in the battle for best of the rest narrowly by 0.029 seconds.

 

Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg ended eighth quickest and in-front of Racing Point’s ninth-placed Lance Stroll.

 

Red Bull Racing’s Alexander Albon spent most of the afternoon in the garage after an early eight-lap stint on mediums thanks to striking the kerb, which split the floor of his Honda-powered RB15 racer and caused an oil leak.

 

The Thai-Briton emerged on track with 20 minutes remaining after the floor change, having a close-call with Hamilton in the sweeping-long left-hand turn three when he squeezed the Silver Arrow onto the inside kerb.

 

Albon improved with a minute left in the session to complete the top ten, and 2.054 seconds off of team-mate Verstappen’s benchmark and only seven thousandths quicker than 11th-placed McLaren of Lando Norris.

 

Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat finished 12th quickest and in-front of the leading VF-19 Haas of Kevin Magnussen who was 13th – with Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo – who ended FP1 with a broken rear wing after spinning into the barriers came home 14th.

 

Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen outpaced Haas F1 Team’s Romain Grosjean to take 15th with the other McLaren of Carlos Sainz 17th.

 

The second Alfa Romeo Racing C38 of Antonio Giovinazzi was a low 18th after suffering a lock up at the right hand turn 13 on his initial qualifying sim run, with the Italian slightly improving on his medium stint but wound up 2.842 seconds off of Verstappen’s benchmark.

 

The two ROKiT Williams Racing FW42’s of George Russell and Robert Kubica brought up the rear in 19th and 20th respectively.

 

You can see the full Formula 1 VTB Russian GP Free Practice Two Results Classification at the following link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2019/races/1015/russia/practice-2.html

 

Missed out on FP1? You can catch up on what happened at the link:

 

@Charles_Leclerc leads @Max33Verstappen in #RussianGP FP1. #F1

 

You can also read this weekend’s race preview at the link:

 

#Formula1 VTB Russian Grand Prix 2019 Preview – #F1

 

Selected Driver Quotes

 

Lewis Hamilton, #44, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1 W10 EQ Power+: “It’s been a day of discovery and exploring. It started off not too bad and while we’ve been improving, the others made some big progressions and improved much faster than we did. Our pace was a little bit better in FP2, but still not where we want to be. We’ll work very late tonight to understand what we can do better and make some changes to the car for tomorrow. It’s good to see the competition doing so well, but naturally we want to be in a fight with them, so that’s what we’re working towards. It’s going to be a tough day tomorrow, but I hope it’s going to be raining. I don’t think we’ve ever driven here in the rain, so that would make it pretty interesting.”

 

Valtteri Bottas, #77, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1 W10 EQ Power+: “It’s always good fun to drive on this track, but unfortunately the others were a bit too quick for us today. The balance of the car felt good, I was just struggling with the overall grip. Everything else seemed ok, but obviously we need to find some gains if we want to be in the fight for pole tomorrow. We will review the data tonight to see what we can do better. Tyres are key for a good performance on this track and we need to try and extract more from the Soft tyres on a single lap, but our performance on the Medium and Hard tyre looked relatively decent. I hope for rain tomorrow, I think we might have a better chance in a wet qualifying.”

 

Sebastian Vettel, #5, Scuderia Ferrari, SF90: “My day was not perfect, as in the afternoon I struggled a bit to find the right balance and therefore I never got into a rhythm. I think we can do better tomorrow as we tried different things and now we need to decide what to keep and what to get rid of. I think we need to work more on the car and then we’ll see if we are competitive. It’s too early to tell what the pecking order is and we will get a better idea of where we are tomorrow. I don’t know what the weather is doing, but the closer we can be to the front the better it is. Anyway, we have the tyres for whatever the situation might be. To summarise I think we can improve, in particular in terms of balance. I hope tomorrow we are on the good side of things.”

 

Charles Leclerc, #16, Scuderia Ferrari, SF90: “It was quite a good day. Although we have some work to do when it comes to our qualifying pace, our race pace was very positive. The track layout can be deceptive, as it has many similar corners. But it is tricky to set up the car, because the first and second sectors are quick and once you arrive in the third sector, the tyres are not in the best shape anymore. There is quite a difference in balance from the beginning to the end of the lap. You have to find a good compromise in the set-up, which will allow you to post the best lap time without sacrificing your race pace. We tested a bit in both directions today and I think we found our way. Our competitors are strong, and we have to keep working as hard as we possibly can to keep our momentum from the past few race weekends.”

 

Max Verstappen, #33, Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda, RB15: “Today was very positive and the car worked really well on both tyres. We followed our own programme, tried quite a few things set-up wise and got a good balance, especially in the last sector but even the first sector with the long straight looked competitive. When you have a good feeling with the car it comes alive in the last sector which is really nice after the strange weekend we had in Singapore. It looks like it may rain tomorrow so that will also mix things up but hopefully the car will also work well in those conditions. We will of course try and do our best in qualifying as the five place grid penalty will be applied after the session, so it is still very important to be quick but at least you can overtake around here and if you are fast you can get to the front. It’s only Friday and too early to make any predictions as everyone will improve but it is a very positive start.”

 

Alexander Albon, #23, Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda, RB15: “FP1 went well this morning but this afternoon in FP2, I got a bit of floor damage after running wide out of Turn 4 which meant we lost some running which was a shame. That delayed things and then when we got back out it was a never-ending traffic jam with everyone on long runs so I didn’t get any clean laps in. I tried to stay out of trouble as best I could and I heard Bottas was just behind me but I didn’t know Lewis was right behind him and so it was my mistake to get in his way. It was just one of those things, but I wouldn’t say it was a waste of a session as there’s definitely things I learned out there. It’s encouraging to see where Max is and to see the car is back to being competitive again. I think the car is quick and the pace is good. I just need to work on it my side and get a cleaner run tomorrow. I’m building confidence with the car and this takes time, but compared to Singapore, I think we’re looking good.”

 

Daniel Ricciardo, #3, Renault F1 Team, R.S.19: “It started pretty well today, but having the incident at the end of FP1 meant we lost a little bit of time in the afternoon. The mechanics did a really good job to fix the car so quickly. We have work to do but we’re not in a bad place with just a few things to clean up. I think I can improve in some areas so there’s more to come. The rears have a hard time here and we’re figuring out the right balance. I’m not too concerned, Nico had decent pace and I think we’ll be alright tomorrow.”

 

Lando Norris, #4, McLaren-Renault F1 Team, MCL34: “Not a bad day. I’m struggling with the car, as it’s a little unpredictable at times, making it easy to make mistakes. I’m not yet as comfortable with the car compared to Singapore, for example. We definitely made progress between the sessions and we’ll now work hard overnight to make more improvements.”

 

Romain Grosjean, #8, Haas F1 Team, VF-19: “It was actually pretty good today. I was P10 in FP1, then in FP2 I didn’t get a lap in on the soft tires – I had a few issues, I pushed the rear of the ride height as low as I could but that created some locking. I think though it was a pretty good day. The long run pace didn’t look too bad and the car felt okay. We did a bit of aero testing today also, changing the front-wing and stuff like that. We’re working on a few things we can do for tomorrow, but we’re quite happily surprised.”

 

Daniil Kvyat, #26, Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda, STR14: “It wasn’t an ideal start to the day in FP1, so in FP2 we had to catch up with the mileage we lost and try a few things we couldn’t try in FP1. I needed to get reacquainted with the track and find my references again, which I did, and we ended up having a productive session in FP2. We covered everything we planned to do, so we are prepared for tomorrow. In the end, we completed a decent number of laps for our long run analysis and hopefully we have enough data to understand what we need for the race. There are always chances, so we’ll do our best to take them. We knew our weekend was going to be compromised already with the penalty we are taking. However, we will do our job and see how far we can get up the grid on Sunday.”

 

Lance Stroll, #18, SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team, RP19: “I’m happy with today and the car is feeling good. There are still some things to work on in terms of the balance, but we seem quite competitive at the moment. Anything can happen tomorrow and there may be a bit of rain in the mix too. Singapore was the first race with the new package and sometimes it takes more than a weekend to find a good balance. We still have to work on a few things but we’re not in bad shape.”

 

Antonio Giovinazzi, #99, Alfa Romeo Racing, C38: “It was a good Friday, even if the laptime doesn’t show it. I did a mistake on the final lap on softs, so we are a bit farther behind than we should have been. The focus is now on finding the best setup tonight and getting a good result in qualifying. It may rain tomorrow, so conditions could be very different. If that is the case, I hope we can have a wet FP3 to understand what we can expect, but in the end it’s the same for everyone. Let’s see what we can achieve: our objective is still a place in Q3. We just need to keep working hard and take the best out of the car.”

 

George Russell, #63, ROKiT Williams Racing, FW42: “It was a bit slippery out there, but I think it’s like that for everyone. I’m not the greatest fan of this circuit. It’s low grip and with all the run off areas it’s not quite as daunting as some other circuits, but it was ok and as we expected. We weren’t quite as good on the new tyres as we should have been. We did our fastest lap on our third lap, rather than the first one, so there is room for improvement. We’re quite slow on the straights and this track has a mighty one to start with, so that’s not helping us at all. Our performance today wasn’t as good as it could have been, and we should be closer than the laptimes suggest.”

 

Red Bull and Toro Rosso set for grid penalties at Russian GP

 

 

Japanese manufacturer Honda have given Aston Martin Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso new Internal Combustion Engines for this weekend’s Russian Grand Prix meaning all drivers will be hit with penalties.

 

Daniil Kvyat will be starting his home Grand Prix at the rear due to changing all power-unit components except the battery, and will see the Toro Rosso driver start in his lowest position out of his five appearances at the Russian GP – with his highest grid spot of fifth racing for Red Bull back in 2015.

 

Toro Rosso team-mate Pierre Gasly and Red Bull Racing drivers Max Verstappen and Alexander Albon will all be hit with five-grid placed penalties for taking on new internal combustion engines.

 

Gasly and Verstappen face a case of deja-vu as they were handed penalties for putting in the latest spec 4 Honda engine in Monza with respective team-mates Albon and Kvyat given the latest spec in Belgium.

 

The decision came as the Japanese manufacturer aimed to have all drivers complete the rest of the 2019 campaign without changing another power-unit component. After Russia however, the Formula 1 circus heads to Honda’s home Grand Prix in Japan.

 

Alfa Romeo lose penalty appeal

 

 

Post-race penalties at the German Grand Prix saw Alfa Romeo Racing lose it’s best results of the 2019 season with Antonio Giovinazzi and Kimi Raikkonen losing their seventh and eighth-placed finishes. And the Swiss-Italian alliance’s appeal from the FIA’s International Court of Appeal was rejected.

 

30-second race time penalties were applied to both drivers after the race stewards found irregularities with both Giovinazzi and Raikkonen’s race starts in the wet and wild race at Hockenheim, with the torque measurements not matching their required limit.

 

The FIA’s bulletin explained: “This provided a more gradual application of the torque, which given the wet conditions was a potential advantage.”

 

Alfa Romeo Racing immediately protested the verdict but on Tuesday their appeal attempt failed, with an FIA spokesperson announcing the protest was not admissible.

 

The decision meant ROKiT Williams Racing’s Robert Kubica who was promoted from 11th to 10th due to the penalties applied – keeps his sole-point and current championship leader Lewis Hamilton retains his two points for coming home ninth.