The drivers and engineers were performing their final preparations inside the garages while the Tifosi packed out the stands and got ready to enjoy more action, in the second practice session for the 2022 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at the Imola circuit. The sun was shining and conditions were very, very different to yesterday!
There was bad news for McLaren in FP2, as Lando Norris, who is set to start third in the Sprint later, joined his team-mate Daniel Ricciardo in the garage with a brake issue. A power unit problem for Daniel Ricciardo had Mcaren update that it is “going to take a lot of work.”
Mercedes seemed to up their game with some interesting lap times at Imola, but it’s possible George Russell and Lewis Hamilton focused more on fast runs from the early stages of the practice session, while Red Bull and Ferrari decided to focuse on the race simulation, with a higher fuel load.
Despite this being a practice session, as qualifying happened yesterday, there can be no further changes to these cars before the Sprint gets underway. So, however these cars have been set up will have to last them for the day – can all the teams make it work?
After a quiet first part of the session at the top of the timesheet for Ferrari, Charles Leclerc returned to the track on soft tyres and the world championship leader Charles Leclerc jumped to second, almost 0.3s behind George Russell. While Charles was running on soft tyres, Carlos was evaluating the mediums, as both Ferrari drivers were doing long runs. With five minutes of the session remaining, George Russell remained top of the timesheet, but only just: Sergio Perez moved back up to P2 with a time that was than 0.1s slower than Russell. It remains to be see whether this is genuine pace from Mercedes, or merely a result of them running a racier setup than their rivals.
The chequered flag waved and it’s indeed the Mercedes of George Russell that ended Practice Two at the top of the timesheet. Sergio Perez was second for Red Bull and Charles Leclerc third for Ferrari, ahead of the other Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz. It will be fascinating to see whether that performance translates into something meaningful in this afternoon’s Sprint and tomorrow’s race.
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