Ferrari shines again as drivers test 2023 Pirelli tyre in Extended Free Practice: 2022 COTA FP2 Highlights
Charles leclerc was back in cockpit for FP2 after his car was given to Robert Schwartzmann, a Ferrari junior driver, in FP1. Leclerc put in the fastest lap of the session on 2022 spec Mediums at a 1:36:810, followed by Valtteri Bottas in P2 at 1:37:525. Daniel Ricciardo rounded the top 3 with a deficit of 8 tenths of a second from the session’s set pace, the latter, however, on the soft compound. It is to be noted that these timings do not represent the drivers’ actual lap times, rather, they show their times on the new experimental 2023 tyres.
The tyre testing was supposed to be done at Suzuka, but due to the wet weather, was postponed further until Austin. This comes before the Post season testing in Abu Dhabi in order to collect extra vital data and information regarding whether the new rubber compound is even ready for the post season testing and other important reasons.
These new tyres were marked by no markings on the sidewalls, pretty ironic if you ask me, anyway, The teams were asked to test the tyres so as to help in the data collection for the next season, which they did but not after doing their own programmes as a compensation for last session’s rookie runs.
Sainz showed his pace, although he secured P4, 1.422 sec behind Charles, this still showed that Sainz has the pace as he lead the pack of those tesing the new tyres and carrying an instructed Fuel load. So all is good for Sainz.
In P5 was Mick Schumacher with a 2.697 sec lag, followed by Lando Norris in P6 and Lewis Hamilton in P7, both of whom slid at the last turn, Lewis especially had a scare back there as his W13 wiggled back onto the track.
Pierre Gasly and Checo Perez completed the top ten respectively under the 1:40s. A repaired Haas saw Kevin Magnussen finish P11 after damage collected by antonia in the last session. Zhou finished P14 while Aston Martin saw a sharp drop to Stroll in p15 and Seb in P19.
Alpine’s duo of Ocon and Alonso finished in P16 and P17 as Fernando’s El plan was ruined as he was stuck behind Lewis, who apparently had “no mirrors”. Albon and Latifi finished in P18 and P20 respectively for williams, not much on that.
That was all for the Free Practice session 2, FP3 will be interesting as fans will finaly get a hint to what the lap times are for qualifying.
