UNITED STATES GP – Charles Leclerc fastest by seven-tenths in second practice
Charles Leclerc was fastest in the second practice session for this weekend’s United States Grand Prix. The Monacan set a 36.810 to go seven-tenths faster than the Alfa Romeo of Valtteri Bottas, in a session which was largely defined by tyre development for Pirelli.
The Italian manufacturer set the run plans on two prototype compounds for next year, it was a blind test however drivers were required to run both compounds. The top three all set their fastest times on the prototype tyres, these were the three hardest compounds.
The conditions were set by Pirelli’s four runs, two ‘performance’ tests at 20kg fuel load and two long-run stints with the cars starting with 100kg of fuel. The quickest times of the performance runs, five laps in total, with three push laps required either side of out- and in-laps
Leclerc, who was one of only five drivers able to do regular running in Practice Two having sat out the opening session as teams fulfilled their young driver session obligations, then went marginally faster than his Ferrari team-mate to top the timesheet.
Ferrari look like the team to beat going into qualifying after topping both practice sessions, while Max Verstappen was only seventh almost three seconds off the pace. The Dutchman going a tenth ahead of Lewis Hamilton.
Bottas was the first driver onto track, going nearly a tenth ahead of Daniel Ricciardo. Carlos Sainz also set his fastest time on the prototype tyre and was seven-tenths off the McLaren, this could suggest that the tyres maybe faster next year. During the normal running, it was the two Ferraris who lead the way, Leclerc setting a 38.856 before Sainz went faster, the Monacan response on the mediums saw him go four-tenths faster.
However, the session may not be wholly reprehensive as well because it took place three hours after the start time of Sunday’s race, making the conditions were not completely comparable.
Ricciardo moved ahead of Sainz followed by Bottas with twenty-three minutes into the session. Mick Schumacher put his Haas fifth fastest going four tenths faster than the McLaren of Lando Norris, with last year’s championship rivals Verstappen seventh ahead of Hamilton by just over a tenth.
However during the tyre test, both Norris and Hamilton suffered dramatic slides running down towards and through the penultimate corner. Sainz was also struggling on the tyres calling them “Tokyo drift.”
Mistakes were common, this could be because of the tweaks to next year’s tyres, which don’t have the understeer characteristic through slow-speed that the drivers have not enjoyed this year.
Pierre Gasly put his Alpha Tauri ninth going a hundredth faster than the sister Red Bull of Sergio Perez, as they rounded out the top ten.
Given the limited running available on Friday due to the tyre test, Practice Three is likely to take on the additional significance on Saturday ahead of Qualifying.
Kevin Magnussen was eleventh going ahead of Yuki Tsunoda, George Russell, Guanyu Zhou and Lance Stroll.
Esteban Ocon lead the two Alpine’s going quarter of a second faster than his teammate Fernando Alonso. The two times champion suffering two snaps through Turn One and Eleven. Alex Albon was eighteenth going four thousandths ahead of Sebastian Vettel, with his Williams teammate Nicolas Latifi rounding out the field