2021 Qatar GP, Ferrari second practice report: Carlos P10, Charles P13. Ferrari second practice report.

The second one-hour session of track activity on the sport’s first day of running at the Losail International Circuit began at nearly 5pm local time, so we were under floodlights for P2 rather quickly.

Valtteri Bottas set two laps quick enough for top spot during second practice for Formula 1’s Qatar Grand Prix as Pierre Gasly surprisingly emerged as a contender. Gasly’s time in FP2 left him firmly in the mix, two-tenths behind Bottas, and ahead of title contenders Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton.

There was a small delay for Charles Leclerc, with repairs taking place to the left-hand side of his Ferrari halfway through the session. The Monegasque was 10th fastest after eight laps at that moment, with team-mate Carlos Sainz in 17th. Given the fact that this second practice session took place at the exact time of tomorrow’s qualifying session, the Maranello team focus on fast laps on the soft tyre, to replice the conditions which will be encountered during qualifying at Losail Circuit.

Losail is a very narrow track with some some corners where it is difficult for cars to make way for others coming from behind, which could create some problems with traffic, as Charles Leclerc found out on several of his attempts. Still a lot of work to do for the Maranello team, who will hope to improve the balance on the two SF21 cars and find some more speed on Saturday. For now only a P10 finish for Carlos Sainz, with a personal best lap time of 1m24.033s, about one second slower than Valtteri Bottas’ benchmark of the day. Charles Leclerc finished in in P13 (1m24.095s)

Saturday’s third practice session is scheduled for 14:00 local time

Results from the second practice session at the Qatar Grand Prix, Round 20 of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship.