F1 Emilia-Romagna – FP2: Leclerc completes Friday clean sweep with fastest lap in Imola

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc has completed a clean sweep of Friday practice as he picked up the fastest lap during Free Practice 2 for the  Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix.  

Unlike the earlier session, there was less variety of tyres on show for the opening stints as drivers opted for either the hard or medium tyres. 

It wasn’t until the halfway point that the soft tyres made an appearance.

However, traffic seemed to be an apparent problem as Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton interrupted both Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen’s running. The latter opted to cut across the track, blocking the seven-time world champion, displaying hand gestures in demonstration of his displeasure.

How FP2 ended…

Leclerc was the fastest driver out on track with a lap time of 1:15.906. The Monegasque was followed closely behind by McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and RB’s Yuki Tsunoda who completed the top three, in second and third respectively.

The Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell rounded out the top five, in fourth and fifth, roughly three to four-tenths behind. 

Leclerc’s teammate, Carlos Sainz led the bottom five inside the top 10, with a sixth-place finish, half a second off the pace of his teammate. 

At the same time, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen continued to have a tough time with his RB20 as he struggled to reign in his car and completed the session down in seventh. Verstappen’s Mexican teammate, Sergio Perez didn’t fair any better as he finished a tenth behind in P8. 

Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg and Fernando Alonso completed the session in ninth and 10th respectively. 

RB’s Daniel Ricciardo was the leading driver in the bottom 10 with an 11th-place finish for the Australian. Lando Norris was a hundredth behind, in 12th, but the McLaren driver was the outlier as he was the only driver to complete his fastest lap on the mediums. 

Lance Stroll narrowly missed out on a 12th-place finish in FP2 as he sat one-hundredth of a second behind Norris. P11 to P13 were only separated by two hundreds of a second. 

The Alpine duo of Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly completed the top 15, in 14th and 15th.

Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas occupied 16th as the chequered flag fell on FP2, ahead of Haas’ Kevin Magnussen (17th) and Williams’ Alexander Albon (18th). 

Guanyu Zhou (Sauber) and Logan Sargeant (Williams) completed the field in 19th and 20th respectively. 

Read more Formula 1 here:

• Tsunoda looks back at Imola floods ahead of Emilia-Romagna GP
• Mercedes F1 hoping new Imola upgrades push team ‘in the right direction’
• Albon extends his F1 stay with ‘multi-year contract’ at Williams
• Norris secures maiden win at F1 Miami Grand Prix
• Verstappen snatches sixth consecutive pole of 2024 in Miami GP
• Verstappen claims back-to-back sprint wins ahead of Leclerc and Perez

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Kamron Kent

Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.

I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.

Kamron Kent

Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.