Charles Leclerc Leads A Ferrari 1-2 In Second Practice At The Dutch Grand Prix

Charles Leclerc led the way at the 2021 Dutch Grand Prix at the Zandvoort circuit in the Netherlands in the second free practice session (FP2).

Carlos Sainz was 0.154 seconds behind in second position. Esteban Ocon was in third position at the end of the session.

The stands were filled with the orange-clad Dutch fans cheering their local hero Max Verstappen.

The sixty-minute long free practice session started again under clear skies in hotter conditions with the air temperature at 20 degrees C and the track temperature at 35 degrees C.

The start of the session was delayed by five minutes. After the interrupted first practice session, the drivers queued up at the end of the pit lane at the start of the session to get maximum track time.

Most of the drivers were on the medium compound tyres except a handful of drivers on the hard compound tyres.

Valtteri Bottas topped the time charts in the first set of runs ahead of his team-mate Lewis Hamilton. But Hamilton ground to a halt on the track with a power unit issue.

After an eight-minute stoppage the session restarted. With Hamilton out of action, Bottas went out early on the soft compound tyres for his qualification simulation.

Bottas went to the top of the time charts with a lap time of 1m11.353s. But Ocon with the track evolution went faster with a lap time of 1m11.074s.

Bottas improved on his time and was just 0.058 seconds behind Ocon. Verstappen on his flying lap was interrupted by Nikita Mazepin’s spin that brought out the red flags again.

The session was restarted quickly and Verstappen took third position with a lap time of 1m11.264s.

With under twenty minutes to go, the Ferrari drivers took over the top two positions. Leclerc with a lap time of 1m10.902s topped the session. Team-mate Sainz was in second position 0.154 seconds behind Leclerc.

Soon the drivers started race simulation on the soft compound tyres with Verstappen setting the pace.

The Ferrari drivers ended the session in the top two positions. Ocon finished in third position with team-mate Fernando Alonso in sixth position.

Bottas and Verstappen finished in fourth and fifth positions. Sergio Pérez was well off the pace and finished in twelfth position. Hamilton’s session ended after three laps and he finished in eleventh position.

Pierre Gasly finished in seventh position with team-mate Yuki Tsunoda in thirteenth position. Lando Norris finished in eighth position even as Daniel Ricciardo languished in fifteenth position.

Antonio Giovinazzi finished in the top ten again as he was in ninth position. Team-mate Kimi Räikkönen finished in sixteenth position.

Sebastian Vettel after the power unit issues in the first session had a delayed start to the session and finished in tenth position. Lance Stroll finished in fourteenth position.

Mick Schumacher finished in seventeenth position with team-mate Mazepin in nineteenth position. Nicholas Latifi finished in eighteenth position. The podium finisher from the previous race George Russell finished in last position.

The teams and drivers will pour over the data collected in the two sessions on Friday to finalize setup changes for Saturday. On this new track, a few surprises are on the cards.

2021 Dutch Grand Prix Second Practice Session Results:

Pos	No	Driver	Nat.	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	16	Charles Leclerc	MON	Scuderia Ferrari	01:10.902		29
2	55	Carlos Sainz	ESP	Scuderia Ferrari	01:11.056	+0.154s	28
3	31	Esteban Ocon	FRA	Alpine F1 Team	01:11.074	+0.172s	33
4	77	Valtteri Bottas	FIN	Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team	01:11.132	+0.230s	33
5	33	Max Verstappen	NED	Red Bull Racing	01:11.264	+0.362s	28
6	14	Fernando Alonso	ESP	Alpine F1 Team	01:11.280	+0.378s	30
7	10	Pierre Gasly	FRA	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	01:11.462	+0.560s	29
8	4	Lando Norris	GBR	McLaren F1 Team	01:11.488	+0.586s	27
9	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	ITA	Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN	01:11.678	+0.776s	30
10	5	Sebastian Vettel	GER	Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team	01:11.713	+0.811s	24
11	44	Lewis Hamilton	GBR	Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team	01:11.911	+1.009s	3
12	11	Sergio Perez	MEX	Red Bull Racing	01:11.946	+1.044s	27
13	22	Yuki Tsunoda	JAP	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	01:12.096	+1.194s	31
14	18	Lance Stroll	CAN	Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team	01:12.136	+1.234s	29
15	3	Daniel Ricciardo	AUS	McLaren F1 Team	01:12.157	+1.255s	25
16	7	Kimi Räikkönen	FIN	Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN	01:12.206	+1.304s	31
17	47	Mick Schumacher	GER	Uralkali Haas F1 Team	01:12.607	+1.705s	31
18	6	Nicholas Latifi	CAN	Williams Racing	01:12.610	+1.708s	27
19	9	Nikita Mazepin	RAF	Uralkali Haas F1 Team	01:12.835	+1.933s	12
20	63	George Russell	GBR	Williams Racing	01:12.855	+1.953s	30