The second free practice for the F1 Grand Prix of Spain was closed by Charles Leclerc with the fastest time.
The Ferrari driver was ahead of George Russell in the fastest lap time of 1:19.670. The third fastest time came after Lewis Hamilton’s name. Max Verstappen finished the session on the sunny Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona in P5 behind Carlos Sainz.
F1 Grand Prix of Spain: Charles Leclerc fastest in first free practice
The practice session started while a lot of work was done in the garages of the teams. Alex Albon Guanzy Zhou and Sergio Perez were on hand after serving FP1. Perez immediately set a good time in 1:22.946 ahead of Mick Schumacher and Yuki Tsunoda. Just like in the morning, Max Verstappen took the lead by improving his teammate’s time to 1:20.932. Sainz followed the Dutchman followed by Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton.
Charles Leclerc made his first meters and after 5 minutes the Monegask took P3 from Hamilton. The difference between the Dutchman and Leclerc was 6 hundredths of a second while the first ten minutes ticked away. At that time, the VSC was deployed due to the cessation of Valtteri Bottas. The Alfa Romeo driver retired with technical problems at Turn 1. The Finn was sixth behind Russell at the time.
The session resumed with just over 45 minutes to go. Sainz was preparing and trying to get a quick lap on the yellow belt. The Spaniard, who is driving his home race this weekend, was in second place behind Verstappen at that time. The Spaniard did not improve for the time being.
Times Grand Prix of Spain 2022.
The clock ticked down to the 39th minute into practice when Aston Martin driver Sebastian Vettel set a fast lap and P1 took over from Verstappen, the four-time F1 world champion set the provisional fastest lap in 1:20.703. Lance Stroll also improved and shot briefly to P5. This was due to an improvement by Sergio Perez, the Mexican and the German exchanged positions again when Verstappen once again set the fastest time. The Dutchman clocked 1:20.06 for Vettel.
Now it was Sainz who claimed P1 with a fast lap with a lead of 16 thousandths of a second over Verstappen. Fernando Alonso also improved and sent his Alpine to P3 ahead of Perez. Vettel had now dropped to P5. Ferrari also seemed to have found speed with Leclerc. The Monegask now led the field in a time that was 3 tenths faster than Sainz.
The fact that the teams opted for a qualifying simulation in the second half was clear when George Russell followed Leclerc. It looked like the updates worked at Mercedes, now Lewis Hamilton was up to third behind Russell. As a result, Max Verstappen dropped to P5 ahead of Fernando Alonso. Sergio Perez had the 7th fastest time behind the Spaniard in the Alpine at the time.
The last quarter had arrived. In this, Max Verstappen, just like teammate Sergio Perez, briefly drove on the yellow tire. This would indicate a long run but Perez was soon seen on the red belt again as the last 10 minutes ticked away.
Like the first free practice, Charles Leclerc also finished the second practice session with the fastest time. The Monegask did this in 1:19.670 ahead of George Russell. Lewis Hamilton was able to get to his hotel with the third fastest time. Max Verstappen closed the top 5 behind Carlos Sainz.
Results second free practice Grand Prix Spain 2022
