Max Verstappen has shown no signs of slowing down coming off of last weekends win at the United States Grand Prix. Verstappen topped both practice sessions edging out Lando Norris in FP2 by 0.119s. In third was Charles Leclerc who will be looking for redemption this weekend after being disqualified alongside Lewis Hamilton at he US GP. Valtteri Bottas Finished 4th fastest ahead of Sergio Perez who is also looking to turn things around as the race for second place in the drivers championship is coming down to the wire.
Perez said, “It’s nice. It’s funny when you are in the car you forget where you are but as soon as you are out, there is a lot of attention. It’s good to have so much support from all the fans. We didn’t have a straightforward day; we get a good read of the softs over a single lap. I had a yellow flag on my lap, so I ended up doing it on the second time lap, and not very straightforward. Plenty of things to understand, we obviously went with different compounds also to understand them for Sunday. I think overall we are looking in a good position. I think we have a good direction that we need to take.”
Hamilton Moving in the Wrong Direction
Lewis Hamilton finished 7th fastest in FP2 raising questions as to where the pace from the US GP went for Mercedes. Hamilton is also looking for redemption after finishing 2nd in the US Grand Prix but then was disqualified from the race due to a breach in the technical regulations. Hamilton was clearly not happy with his pace on day 1. “I mean the car is night and day different compared to last week. And yeah, I don’t know what to say, you just never know what you’re going to get with this one,” he said. “Some days she’s great and some days she’s not. I think it’s hard to extract the lap, I think there is definitely performance there. It’s just hard to extract it and it’s quite peaky this weekend with the aero map or whatever it might be.”
Hamilton is currently 39 points behind Sergio Perez in the drivers championship. With 5 races remaining in 2023 every point and finish is crucial to bring home second. Perez will look to extend his lead this in the the 71 lap race on Sunday.
Full FP2 Results Below
| Position | Driver | # | Laps | Time | Interval |
|---|
| 1 | M. VERSTAPPEN/Red Bull Racing | 1 | 26 | 1’18.686 | |
| 2 | L. NORRIS/McLaren | 4 | 31 | +0.1191’18.805 | 0.119 |
| 3 | C. LECLERC/Ferrari | 16 | 33 | +0.2661’18.952 | 0.147 |
| 4 | V. BOTTAS/Alfa Romeo | 77 | 33 | +0.2691’18.955 | 0.003 |
| 5 | S. PEREZ/Red Bull Racing | 11 | 29 | +0.3021’18.988 | 0.033 |
| 6 | D. RICCIARDO/AlphaTauri | 3 | 31 | +0.3161’19.002 | 0.014 |
| 7 | L. HAMILTON/Mercedes | 44 | 30 | +0.3381’19.024 | 0.022 |
| 8 | E. OCON/Alpine | 31 | 29 | +0.3911’19.077 | 0.053 |
| 9 | O. PIASTRI/McLaren | 81 | 31 | +0.4771’19.163 | 0.086 |
| 10 | G. RUSSELL/Mercedes | 63 | 31 | +0.5411’19.227 | 0.064 |
| 11 | C. SAINZ/Ferrari | 55 | 34 | +0.5711’19.257 | 0.030 |
| 12 | Y. TSUNODA/AlphaTauri | 22 | 34 | +0.6041’19.290 | 0.033 |
| 13 | Z. GUANYU/Alfa Romeo | 24 | 27 | +0.7291’19.415 | 0.125 |
| 14 | A. ALBON/Williams | 23 | 23 | +0.7601’19.446 | 0.031 |
| 15 | N. HULKENBERG/Haas F1 Team | 27 | 29 | +0.8491’19.535 | 0.089 |
| 16 | P. GASLY/Alpine | 10 | 29 | +0.9561’19.642 | 0.107 |
| 17 | L. SARGEANT/Williams | 2 | 26 | +1.2141’19.900 | 0.258 |
| 18 | L. STROLL/Aston Martin Racing | 18 | 17 | +1.3891’20.075 | 0.175 |
| 19 | K. MAGNUSSEN/Haas F1 Team | 20 | 30 | +1.4261’20.112 | 0.037 |
| 20 | F. ALONSO/Aston Martin Racing | 14 | 30 | +1.7401’20.426 | 0.314 |