COTA, FP2: Leclerc quickest in session defined by tyre testing

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc topped the timesheet in a second practice session for the 2022 FIA United States Grand Prix in which lap times were rendered largely meaning as drivers tested 2023 tyre compounds.

Leclerc, along with second-placed Valtteri Bottas and third-placed Daniel Ricciardo sat out the earlier session to make way for rookie drivers and therefore were allowed to run 2022 tyres as well as next year’s test tyres as they got their first taste of the track this weekend in the second session. The regular running for 35 minutes of the 90 specified allowed the trio to claim the session’s top spots.

Bottas, on 2022 medium tyres, set the early pace with a lap of 1:40.655 before Ricciardo moved to P1 with a lap of 1:40.474 also set on mediums. Leclerc then went quicker still, on this year’s soft tyres, to take top sport with a lap of 1:38.856. The Monegasque driver then topped his own P1 time with a lap of 1:37.614. The Ferrari driver headed back to the pit lane, switched to medium tyres and posted the session’s quickest lap of 1:36.810s as the 15-minute mark arrived.

Behind Leclerc, Bottas switch from mediums to 2022 softs and took second place, 0.715s behind the Ferrari driver as Ricciardo, following a similar plan to the Alfa Romeo driver, posted a best lap of 1:37.627 to take third.

Behind them, Carlos Sainz in the other Ferrari was the quickest of the drivers who solely ran test tyres headed the drivers that only ran the new prototype compounds. Sainz was followed by Haas’ Mick Schumacher, McLaren’s Lando Norris and Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen, with Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly and the second Red Bull of Sergio Pérez rounding out the top 10.