The Free Practice 2 session resumed where it had ended this morning, with Ferrari clearly ahead of everyone. In the qualifying simulation, both on yellow and red tires, the SF-23 was about half a second faster than all its rivals. However, there were significant difficulties for the Red car in tire management during the race pace simulation.
During the second free practice session at Marina Bay, further adjustments were made to set up the red cars optimally. There’s a promising factor, which concerns the lap times. Bearing in mind that mappings and fuel loads remain unknown, it’s worth noting that Charles Leclerc had the opportunity to further lower his time by nearly half a second. The car did show some limitations related to its usual negative characteristics. We’re talking about the weak front end, which unfortunately reduces grip on the front axle and, at the same time, leads to a certain lack of rotation. Engineers aim to minimize this mild understeer through some adjustments to the suspension system. Apart from that, being able to adopt a lower ride height, the downforce generated by the car’s underbody has been quite helpful.
The Red Bull team seemed completely lost, with Max Verstappen surprisingly struggling more than Sergio Pérez. They concluded the session with the Mexican in 7th position, while the reigning world champion was only 8th. In the long run, Pérez performed among the best, while Verstappen never showed much strength compared to the competition.
Mercedes performed well, with George Russell in 3rd and Lewis Hamilton in 5th on the flying lap, and a better race simulation compared to Ferrari. The W14 appears to manage tire degradation better than the SF-23.
Other positive notes include Fernando Alonso and Lando Norris. The two-time Spanish world champion is 4th on the timesheets but displayed the best race pace overall, while Lando is 6th on the flying lap but executed an excellent Grand Prix simulation on the red tires, showing minimal tire wear.
Certainly, the surprise of the session was AlphaTauri, especially when simulating qualifying, as Tsunoda was among the frontrunners, indicating that the updates are yielding the desired results.
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