Marko Hanželic
The second free practice started in yet significantly hotter weather as the first, since the temperatures in Le Castellet raised all the way to 46 degrees Celsius, which is of course a challenge for racers as well as for teams and tires. Speaking of the latter, let’s mention that it is Pirelli prepared mixes for the French racing weekend C2, C3 and C4.
He was the first to drive out of the garages George Russell, who missed the first practice as he had to lend his car to a test racer Roy Nissan, Briton v Williams however, practically the entire caravan followed, with one exception Charles Leclerc, who decided to start his second free practice a little later.
Valtteri Bottas continued the second training in the style of the first - with the fastest time soon after the start. With a time of 1: 32.880, he was half a second faster than in the morning. Most racers had quite a few problems, especially in the sixth turn, where he also made a mistake Lando Norris. He took second place in his first attempt Lewis Hamilton, for both racers Mercedesa so both racers of the team lined up Red Bull.
As we are used to this season, it is first pirouette training contributed again Nikita mazepin, which spun at the entrance to turn no. 15, much like he did in the first practice Yuki tsunoda. It seems that the rather high curbs, which stood part of the front wing in the morning, will also play an important role in this racing weekend. Bottas, and on the other Verstappen, who lost part of the front wing at the exit of the chicane.
The next noteworthy incident happened Carlos Sainz, which was too fast at the entrance to bend no. 4, but escaped back to the track without difficulty through the long excursion zone. Very good on the home track Paul ricard obviously finds Stephen Ocon, who set a third time in the middle of training, but on soft tires.
On the red-rimmed tires, he managed to improve his time as well Lewis Hamilton, but he is still two tenths behind his teammate while he is Max Verstappen overtook the latter by only 8 thousandths of a second. From what has been seen, it is clear that soft rubber tires do not bring many advantages, as they can withstand only a few laps in this heat.
"I almost collided with Haas," he informed his engineers Sergio Perez, who ran into a crowd in his fast lap. Mexican he struggled with the tires and in the end was a good second slower than his teammate, thus landing only on 12. place. On the other hand, he could have been in a much better mood after training Fernando Alonso, who finished in fourth place, before Leclerc and teammates Oconom. Pierre is consistently good this season gasly, who landed in seventh place. The top ten have been completed Carlos Sainz, Kimi Raikkonen in Lando Norris.
Results - French GP, FP2
In the last part, the teams, as usual, focused on race simulation, where it was perceived to be Verstappen still slightly faster than both Mercedes. Before the end of the training, both protagonists made their own mistakes in the fight for the title. Hamilton drove over the curb, Verstappen was too fast in turn no. 6. In the end, therefore, the Dutchman overtook by a hair Bottas, who certainly gained in confidence today, finished in third place Lewis Hamilton, who was not the most satisfied with the performance of his car.
