Carlos Sainz gave Ferrari fans something to smile about after setting an impressive pace in the second and final practice session of the Austrian Grand Prix weekend, with team-mate Charles Leclerc second at the Red Bull Ring.
The Spaniard clocked 1m 08.610s, just 0.05s off Leclerc, with reigning world champion Max Verstappen, who has a legion of orange-clad fans in the stands in Austria, third fastest.
As this is an F1 sprint weekend, there are only two 60-minute practice sessions, with the Saturday morning session being used to evaluate tires for both that afternoon’s fast and furious 24-lap sprint, but also for Sunday’s main event – Grand Prix.
HOW IT HAPPENED: All the action from second practice for the Austrian Grand Prix
Alpine continued their good form around the 10-turn circuit this weekend, with Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon fourth and fifth respectively, the duo a quarter of a second ahead.
1 Carlos Sainz SAI Ferrari 1:08.610 2 Charles Leclerc LEC Ferrari +0.050s 3 Max Verstappen VER Red Bull Racing +0.168s 4 Fernando Alonso ALO Alpine +0.222s 5 Esteban Ocon OCO Alpine +0.238s
Sergio Perez, who will start the F1 sprint 13th after all his Q3 laps and his fastest Q2 lap were deleted due to track restrictions, was sixth, ahead of George Russell, whose Mercedes team did an impressive job to prepare the car for the session after his qualifying crash (there were only six hours between qualifying and FP2 where teams were allowed to work on cars).
READ MORE: Perez to start Austrian GP sprint from P13 after deleting Q3 lap times
Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas – who started at the back for Sunday’s race following a raft of engine component changes – is eighth, with Lewis Hamilton joining the fray with 14 minutes to go as Mercedes completed its rebuild to finish ninth.
Mercedes said they replaced Hamilton with the spare chassis because of the damage caused by his atypical crash in qualifying.
Lando Norris completed the top 10, his McLaren teammate Daniel Ricciardo almost four tenths of a second behind in 17th.
FP2 Highlights: 2022 Austrian Grand Prix
Lance Stroll was the leading Aston Martin in 11th, ahead of AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly and Sebastian Vettel, who will start the F1 Sprint 20th and last.
Zhou Guanyu was 14th, with Alex Alban in the upgraded Williams 15th and the Haas duo of Mick Schumacher and Kevin Magnussen, who would start the sprint in the top-seven, 16th and 18th respectively.
AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda and Nicholas Latifi’s Williams rounded out the graphics.
The F1 Sprint starts at 1630 local time on Saturday.
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