Verstappen Edges out Leclerc in Second Canadian Grand Prix Practice

Max Verstappen continued where he left off in the first session as he led the way in second practice for the Canadian Grand Prix on Friday.

The Oracle Red Bull Racing driver set a best time of 1:14.127 to head the pack, which was led by Scuderia Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr.

Verstappen set his best time around the halfway mark of the session, with Leclerc ending just 0.081 seconds back in second, while Sainz was 0.225 seconds back in third as drivers continued to get used to the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve after the race was cancelled in both 2020 and 2021.

Sebastian Vettel showed that the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team have started the weekend well by putting his AMR22 into fourth place, while Fernando Alonso proved that his pace from the first session was genuine by ending fifth for the BWT Alpine F1 Team, just ahead of Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly.

George Russell was the best placed of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team drivers in seventh, with the Briton more than eight-tenths of a second back on the pace set by Verstappen at the front.  He ended just ahead of the two McLaren F1 Team drivers, with Lando Norris edging out Daniel Ricciardo by 0.046 seconds, while Alpine’s Esteban Ocon rounded out the top ten.

Sergio Pérez was out of position in the second Red Bull, with the Mexican finding himself down in eleventh, more than a second down on his team-mate, while Lance Stroll was twelfth in the second Aston Martin ahead of the second Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton.

Hamilton was driving with an experimental set-up on his W13 as the team attempt to solve the bouncing/porposing issues they’ve had this year, but the seven-time World Champion was heard over the radio calling the car ‘undriveable’.

Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher were fourteenth and fifteenth respectively for the Haas F1 Team, while Zhou Guanyu was sixteenth for Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN.  Yuki Tsunoda, who will start at the back of the grid this weekend after an engine chance, was seventeenth for AlphaTauri ahead of the two Williams F1 Team drivers, Alexander Albon and Nicholas Latifi.

The second Alfa Romeo of Valtteri Bottas completed only three installation laps throughout the session and did not set a lap time after issues with something within his gearbox that saw him struggle to change gear.

There was one brief Virtual Safety Car (VSC) early on after marshal’s were forced to retrieve an errant can that had found its way on to the track.  However, it was quickly recovered, and the session resumed without many compromises to running.

Circuit Gilles Villeneuve Free Practice 2 Result