Leclerc Leads Ferrari One-Two in Second Free Practice Session at Zandvoort

Charles Leclerc led Scuderia Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr. and Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team‘s Lewis Hamilton in the second free practice session of the weekend at the FIA Formula 1 World Championship Dutch Grand Prix.

Leclerc finished just 0.004s ahead of Sainz on a sunny Friday at Circuit Zandvoort, with the Mercedes of Hamilton a further 0.068s behind the leader.

The session was delayed by fifteen minutes after a red flag interrupted FIA Formula 2 qualifying session earlier in the afternoon. Many were left pondering upon the Oscar Piastri news following the announcement the he will be drive for the McLaren F1 Team in 2023, but people’s attentions quickly turned to free practice as it finally got underway.

Ferrari set the pace from the off ahead of Max Verstappen. Verstappen and his Oracle Red Bull Racing team though soon started to drop down the standings, with Mercedes and McLaren increasing their pace back to where it was in free practice one.

There was a stop in the session with not long to go as Scuderia AlphaTauri‘s Yuki Tsunoda‘s beached his car into the gravel, causing a red flag, which was not what the home favourite Verstappen wanted to hear.

It was another worrying session for Red Bull as they looked uncharacteristically poor on one lap pace so much so they only had one car running in the top ten positions. Verstappen, who missed out on the majority of free practice one and had a new gearbox fitted to his car, finished behind Fernando Alonso for eighth position, while his team-mate Sergio Pérez finished in a disappointing twelfth position.

It was another impressive-looking session for Mercedes, with the Silver Arrows still searching for their first victory of the 2022 season. They followed up their impressive pace in free practice one, where they ended with a 1-2 finish. Hamilton’s team-mate George Russell finished in a respectable fifth place but he somewhat further off the pace sitting 0.310s behind the leader in the Ferrari.

McLaren continued their impressive start to the weekend too. Lando Norris finished in fourth place and he was only 0.103s behind Leclerc. However, it wasn’t all smooth for McLaren as Daniel Ricciardo’s session was cut short due an oil leak on the radiator. However, the Australian’s pace looked good as he finished tenth in the standings.

Lance Stroll kept up his free practice two form from last weekend, where he finished fourth and he followed that up this weekend with a sixth place finish in his Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team car. Elsewhere, both BWT Alpine F1 Team drivers finished in the top ten, Alonso and Esteban Ocon finishing seventh and ninth respectively.

Despite his spin ito the gravel, Tsunoda was an encouraging eleventh as AlphaTauri continue to learn about its updated AT-03, the Japanese racer ending just ahead of Pérez and Haas F1 Team‘s Mick Schumacher, while Sebastian Vettel was fourteenth in the second Aston Martin.

It was a disappointing session for Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN, with Zhou Guanyu down in fifteenth and Valtteri Bottas eighteenth, while the second AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly – who started and finished fourth at this event twelve months ago – was only sixteenth ahead of Williams Racing‘s Alexander Albon. The field was rounded out by Haas’ Kevin Magnussen and the second Williams of Nicholas Latifi.

Circuit Zandvoort Free Practice 2 Result