Max fifth at Interlagos during second free practice

Published on 12 November 2022 by Mike Motilall

Max Verstappen finished fifth fastest at the second free practice for the Brazilian Grand Prix. Esteban Ocon topped the board in this session, while Sergio Pérez, Max’ team mate at Oracle Red Bull Racing, came in second. George Russell was good enough for third place while Fernando Alonso grabbed fourth. All the drivers in the top five ran on the soft compound tyres. With the exception of Alonso, who ran on the mediums. Due to parc-fermé rules after qualifying, teams were only allowed to make minimal adjustments to their cars. This practice was not only to do about clocking the fastest lap times but also about the possibility of gathering more data on how the different tyres types are holding up.

The temperature in São Paulo is exactly the same like yesterday during the first session; an ambient 24 degrees with an asphalt temperature of 46 degrees. The two Aston Martins are the first ones out on the Interlagos circuit, Max’ first time in this session is 1,7 second slower than the fastest man at that moment, George Russell. This puts the Dutchman ninth fastest on the harder compound tyre. Nicholas Latifi briefly triggers a yellow flag when he gets on the grass at Turn twelve. He is able to get back on track on his own. In the other Williams it’s not Alexander Albon who is at the helm but the American Logan Sargeant. The team intends to have him run 100 kilometers so he will be able to get an additional point on his super licence.

After twenty minutes the top five is as follows: Russell, Pérez, Pierre Gasly, Lewis Hamilton and Kevin Magnussen. The latter quite impressively took his first pole yesterday. Russell and Gasly clocked their times on the soft compound, Pérez and Hamilton on the harder compound while Magnussen ran on the yellow walled rubber. Meanwhile, Verstappen is steadily doing his laps on the harder compound and has dropped to P12. He is consistently lapping the track during a long run, while he clocks times between 1:17.000 and 1:17.300. Halfway the session, the reigning world champion heads back in. His team mate is by then also in the pits.

Ocon tops the leader board on a set of the softs: 1:14.604. Hamilton moves up to the third spot, also on the red walled tyres. The fastest man on the hards is at that moment Pérez, running fourth fastest. With still 25 minutes to go, Max heads back out again, also on the red compound tyres. His team mate does the same. Verstappen moves up to the third spot with a 1:15.098. Pérez’ time, a 1:14.788, is good enough for P2. At about the same time, Sargeant has achieved his 100-kilometre mark, earning him an extra point on his super licence.

With still ten minutes to go, both Ferrari-drivers are outside the top ten. Max has been dropped to the fifth spot seeing that Alonso and Russell have by now overtaken him. Max finishes the session in the same spot when the time is up. Ocon is the fastest man on track during this second free practice.

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Results second free practice Brazil: