Track action on this opening day in Austin finished with Sergio Perez on top of the standings in the second free practice session for the 2021 United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas, as P2 timesheet certainly looks rather better than the P1 version did for Red Bull. McLaren’s Lando Norris finished FP2 in second place, ahead of the two Mercedes cars of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas.
Drivers were keen to hit the ground running with the track seeing plenty of action in the opening minutes of the session. The teams focused on installation runs with the majority opting for a few laps on the medium and hard compound tyres.
Despite the fact that Scuderia Ferrari did not finish in the top five, it was still a positive practice session for both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, who completed the Italian side’s programme without any issues, gathering important data ahead of the qualifying session on Saturday. The Monegasque driver finished the session in seventh place, with a personal best lap time of 1:35.572, six tenths behind Sergio Perez’s best lap time of the afternoon session in Austin.
Max Verstappen, left frustrated by traffic, did not complete a qualy sim and so wound up eighth, ahead of Carlos Sainz in P9 – 1:35.919 for the Spanish driver.
All in all there is a real sense of optimism here for Scuderia Ferrari, as the Maranello team believe they have really got to a point where they can beat McLaren every weekend on pure pace, starting with this weekend’s race in Austin.
In the second part of the session, Charles and Carlos turned their attention to the heavier-fuel race runs, with focus on tyre wear and performance for Sunday’s all-important race at Circuit of the Americas.
US Grand Prix – Here are the complete results from free practice two ahead of this weekend’s 2021 F1 World Championship race the Circuit of the Americas.
Results (Classification):
Sergio Perez Red Bull Racing – 1:34.946
Lando Norris McLaren +0.257
Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +0.364
Valtteri Bottas Mercedes +0.414
Daniel Ricciardo McLaren +0.511
Lance Stroll Aston Martin +0.615
Charles Leclerc Scuderia Ferrari +0.626
Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing +0.878
Carlos Sainz Scuderia Ferrari +0.973
Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo +1.192
Esteban Ocon Alpine +1.212
Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri +1.296
Fernando Alonso Alpine +1.430
Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo +1.612
Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin +1.772
Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri +2.037
Mick Schumacher Haas +2.095
Nicholas Latifi Williams Racing +2.308
George Russell Williams Racing +2.544
Nikita Mazepin Haas +3.080
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