Imola Grand Prix – Free Practice 2: Red Bull in trouble, Ferrari still celebrating

After a session this morning where the Ferraris and the Mercedes were comfortable on the Imola track, all eyes are on Red Bull, slightly behind. Max Verstappen was not comfortable, suffering from understeer: very penalizing in sector 2. Reaction to come from Red Bull? Confirmation of Ferrari’s good performance? We will know in 60 short minutes…

The course of the session

It is 5 pm in Imola, the track is slightly warmer than this morning. The track temperature is 38.4 degrees… The sun is still shining, the tifosi are increasingly numerous.

Pierre Gasly gives us the first spin of this session by entering the high chicane of the circuit very aggressively. He almost managed to take the second turn, but eventually ended up spinning at the exit. A loss of control that reminds us of Max Verstappen’s in FP1, where he had gone straight on.

This one has already reacted: they top the session with a time of 1:16.734 on medium tires 10 minutes after the start of the session. Charles Leclerc, a real attraction for photographers in the Pit Lane, sets the fastest lap and pushes Max Verstappen back to second place by only 57 milliseconds. Carlos Sainz slots in between the two, putting both Ferraris in the top two positions.

After 20 minutes of fast-paced session, all the single-seaters are back in the pits. The Williams are the only ones that have not clocked any laps so far. The pace has significantly dropped…

At midday, the lap times drop again. First, Oscar Piastri completes a lap allowing him to move up to second place. George Russell follows a few seconds later, trailing by two tenths. Almost all cars are on soft tires.

Red Bull in trouble

Max Verstappen is pushing the limits again. His front right wheel slightly grazes the gravel trap at turn 6. The Red Bulls are clearly struggling, the triple world champion is in 7th place, with Sergio Perez one position behind. Yuki Tsunoda’s Racing Bull is even ahead of his teammates: the Japanese is in 3rd place with 25 minutes left in the session.

A small altercation between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, in slow motion wanting to let him pass, brings back some memories… The Dutchman is nervous today, nothing seems to be going his way.

The hierarchy does not change, the drivers are clocking a lot of laps at a constant pace for the race. The Alpines are in 14th and 15th place, they have been following each other since the beginning of the day.

A new little difference opposes two drivers… it concerns Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez. The latter slows down slightly, Charles Leclerc takes advantage and passes him on the inside of the Tosa corner… not to the liking of the Mexican. It’s the same situation or almost the same as the one between Verstappen and Hamilton earlier.

The podium does not change, the drivers have completed many laps on their tires. Charles Leclerc is once again in the lead like in FP1, Oscar Piastri is second. Yuki Tsunoda impresses by setting the 3rd best time of the session.

The ranking of free practice 2