After a jam-packed practice session, it was home favourite Oscar Piastri who topped the FP2 time sheets ahead of Mercedes duo Kimi Antonelli and George Russell, with a time of 1:19.729.
McLaren back on form
After a disappointing first practice session of the year for the team, McLaren bounced back from FP1 by topping the timing sheets in FP2. Aussie driver Oscar Piastri was looking quick on home turf, while Lando Norris recovered from the clutch issue that caused him to end his FP1 outing prematurely, finishing P7 in what was a much more positive session for the British driver.
Ferrari and Mercedes looking strong
Having topped the previous session, Ferrari drivers Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc finished FP2 in P4 and P5, respectively. In a session that saw numerous drivers going off into the gravel, due to these cars seeming to be more of a challenge to unlock once they’ve locked up, both Hamilton and Leclerc went off in the same place at turn 3, with Mercedes driver George Russell later did the same. However, this in no way hindered their progress, as both drivers had some very strong runs and seemed to be very comfortable with the car.
Rounding off the top 3 behind Piastri, Mercedes had a very promising session throughout. Kimi Antonelli became the first driver to go below the 1 minute 20 seconds mark, finishing P2 in what was a very hopeful start to only the young driver’s second season in F1.
Despite having an off at turn 3, George Russell appeared to be very strong on his fast laps, while also gaining lots of valuable race data for the team.
Cause for concern for Red Bull
It wasn’t all smooth sailing for Red Bull during FP2 as issues with their car were highlighted. Towards the beginning of the session, Max Verstappen came to a stop at the end of the pit lane, as his car just seemingly lost power. He was stuck there for a little while until the marshals helped move the car back to the garage.
This was almost identical to what happened with Racing Bulls driver Arvid Lindblad in FP1, which doesn’t look very promising for the Red Bull and Ford power unit, since both teams use it and suffered the same problems.
To make matters worse, Verstappen had a huge off at turn 10 in what is a 125 mph corner as he went tumbling into the gravel. Though he managed to keep control of the car and prevented himself from a worse incident, the floor of his Red Bull suffered significant damage with rear parts of the floor flying off the car.
Woes for Aston Martin continue
After a disastrous FP1, Aston Martin finally managed to send Fernando Alonso out onto the track 15 minutes into the session. While this was at least an improvement from not going out at all, onboards of the car highlighted the strange noises it was making. This gave further evidence that there are definitely many issues at hand.
Lance Stroll was sent out with about half of the session remaining, however he only completed a small number of laps before being called back into the pits to retire from the session with roughly 10 minutes left.
Pérez’s struggles
Making his return back to F1 after a year out, Sergio Pérez is not having the dream start to his season that he would have been hoping for. Struggling with sensory issues, Pérez’s car was being worked on by the mechanics for most of the session.
This meant Pérez only came out onto the track towards the latter end. He then only recorded two laps before coming to a stop at the side of the track with 6 minutes left, due to the issues with the car.
Investigations after session
At the very start of the session, there was an incident between Mercedes’ George Russell and Racing Bulls’ Arvid Lindblad. Lindblad was queuing in the pit lane while Russell was waiting to join.
There was some confusion over whether the Racing Bulls’ driver was going to allow Russell in, leading to slight contact between the two. The stewards decided to investigate this after the session, however nothing is expected to come of it.
In addition to this, Alpine driver Franco Colapinto will be investigated after the session due to how he suddenly slowed down significantly on the racing line in front of Lewis Hamilton, who was forced to take evasive action in order to prevent a collision.
Feature image courtesy of Formula 1