Alonso tops second free practice ahead of Verstappen at the São Paulo Grand Prix

Fernando Alonso finished on top of the time charts at the 2021 São Paulo Grand Prix in Brazil in the second free practice session. Max Verstappen was in second position and Valtteri Bottas was in third position at the end of the second free practice session.

The session started with the two championship rivals under investigation by the stewards and no decision made in either case.

Lewis Hamilton’s DRS failed to comply with the regulations in post-qualifying scrutineering and the rear-wing has been impounded and the breach in regulations referred to the stewards.

This puts Hamilton’s start position in the sprint race at risk with the penalty being a possible pit lane start.

Verstappen is being investigated by the stewards for touching Hamilton’s rear-wing in parc ferme which is the breach of the FIA’s sporting regulations.

The sixty-minute long second free practice session started under sunny conditions with air temperatures at 18 degrees C and track temperatures at 47 degrees C.

Lance Stroll and Nikita Mazepin were the first drivers on the track. Kimi Räikkönen  was the first driver to set a timed lap of 1m14.604s.

Verstappen and Pérez went to the top of the time charts with their first laps. Esteban Ocon went second fastest splitting the two Red Bull Racing drivers.

The two Scuderia AlphaTauri drivers, Yuki Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly were in third and fourth positions.

The Mercedes drivers went out on the track with less than forty minutes left in the session. Hamilton started with race simulations in the hot conditions in preparation for the sprint qualifying race.

This session was all about the preparation for the sprint race rather than trying to set fast laps. The drivers were also conserving tyres and were on used sets of tyres.

With less than twenty minutes to go, Fernando Alonso went to the top of the time charts with a lap time of 1m11.238s, 0.864 seconds quicker than Verstappen.

A lot of drivers were making excursions off the track in the hot conditions.

The session ended with the stewards decision hanging over the sprint race which will start in three hours and thirty minutes after the end of this session.

2021 São Paulo Grand Prix FP2 Results: