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Alex Kalinauckas

United States GP: Leclerc leads second practice ahead of Bottas

Leclerc was one of three drivers to run two of the 2022 Pirelli compounds – along with Valtteri Bottas and Daniel Ricciardo – because he sat out FP1 with Robert Shwartzman driving his F1-75 as part of the rookie practice running mandated in the 2022 rules. 

They were allowed 35 minutes to get up to speed for the first time around the Austin track for the first time in 2022, before then joining their colleagues on the unmarked rubber.  

This is from the harder end of Pirelli’s 2023 range, with the soft compounds being trialled in the FP2 session for next weekend’s Mexican GP after that testing had to be dropped at the wet event in Japan last time out. 

 Running the 2022 medium tyres, Bottas established the first-place benchmark at 1m40.655s before Ricciardo nipped ahead on a 1m40.474s also using the yellow-walled tyres. 

After five minutes, Leclerc beat both with his first run – using the 2022 softs – to go top on a 1m38.856s. 

He was briefly deposed by team-mate Carlos Sainz, who was running prototypes from the off as he had topped FP1, before Leclerc re-established his place at the top of times with a 1m37.614s to close out his softs-shod run. 

After a quick trip to the pits to switch to the mediums, Leclerc set the quickest time of FP2 just before the 15-minute mark – a 1m36.810s. 

He pitted immediately afterwards and after a near 10m-minute stint in the Ferrari garage, he completed his permitted time on the 2022 tyres completing a high-fuel run, with his times coming in around five seconds slower than his personal best. 

This replicates a typical FP2 session, but with this session starting three hours later than the 2pm race start time on Sunday, conditions were not completely comparable. 

As Leclerc was doing this, Bottas and Ricciardo had finished their 2022 tyre running on a contra-run plan – moving from the mediums to the softs. 

This was dictated by Pirelli and was compromised of four runs – two ‘performance’ tests at 20kg fuel load and two long-run stints with the cars starting with 100kg of fuel. 

This could well have been a factor in the high number of mistakes witnessed during FP2 on Friday, with several drivers having lurid slides exiting corners on the tweaked tyres for next year, which are understood to be subtle design changes rather than any wholesale adjustment from Pirelli. 

Fernando Alonso had a big snap out of Turn 1 – the uphill left-hand hairpin at the start of the Austin lap – and Turn 11 running on to the back straight. 

At one point, Sainz described his running on the prototype tyres as “Tokyo drift”. 

The 17 drivers running just the prototypes had their running capped at 26 laps after the four runs required by Pirelli, while Leclerc (37), Bottas (37) and Ricciardo (40) racked up more. 

They closed out the session as the only runners, with Leclerc’s first flying lap on the prototypes coming in 0.1s slower than Sainz’s personal best in fourth overall. 

Cla Driver Chassis Engine Laps Time Gap
1 Monaco Charles Leclerc Ferrari Ferrari 37 1'36.810  
2 Finland Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo Ferrari 37 1'37.525 0.715
3 Australia Daniel Ricciardo McLaren Mercedes 40 1'37.627 0.817
4 Spain Carlos Sainz Ferrari Ferrari 26 1'38.232 1.422
5 Germany Mick Schumacher Haas Ferrari 26 1'39.507 2.697
6 United Kingdom Lando Norris McLaren Mercedes 26 1'39.547 2.737
7 Netherlands Max Verstappen Red Bull Red Bull 26 1'39.575 2.765
8 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton Mercedes Mercedes 26 1'39.698 2.888
9 France Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri Red Bull 26 1'39.840 3.030
10 Mexico Sergio Perez Red Bull Red Bull 26 1'39.852 3.042
11 Denmark Kevin Magnussen Haas Ferrari 24 1'40.084 3.274
12 Japan Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri Red Bull 26 1'40.178 3.368
13 United Kingdom George Russell Mercedes Mercedes 26 1'40.562 3.752
14 China Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo Ferrari 26 1'40.664 3.854
15 Canada Lance Stroll Aston Martin Mercedes 26 1'40.806 3.996
16 France Esteban Ocon Alpine Renault 26 1'41.310 4.500
17 Spain Fernando Alonso Alpine Renault 26 1'41.334 4.524
18 Thailand Alex Albon Williams Mercedes 26 1'41.853 5.043
19 Germany Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin Mercedes 26 1'41.857 5.047
20 Canada Nicholas Latifi Williams Mercedes 26 1'42.317 5.507
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