Miami, FP2: Russell quickest as Verstappen hits trouble

Mercedes’ George Russell went quickest in second practice for the 2022 FIA Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix, beating Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in a session disrupted by two red flags. Sergio Pérez was third, but the Mexican’s team-mate Max Verstappen failed to set a time as technical woes kept him in the garage for most of the session.

In a busy opening 10 minutes Leclerc topped the order with a lap of 1:31.131. Carlos Sainz then bumped his Ferrari team-mate out of top spot with a lap of 1:30.964. The Spaniard’s session ended soon after, however, when he lost the rear in Turn 13, He hit the wall on the outside of the corner and damaged the front-right corner of his car. The red flags were quickly displayed and running was halted for 12 minutes while Sainz’s Ferrari was recovered.

When the session got underway once more, the bulk of the field moved to soft tyres for qualifying simulations. Alpine’s Fernando Alonso looked to be on course to claim P1 but he came across a slow-running Verstappen and was forced to back out of the attempt.

Red Bull had changed Verstappen’s gearbox after he had suffered overheating issues in FP1 and after spending most of the session in the garage he was sent out on track only to suffer steering problems that sent him slowly back to the pit lane. As crawled back to the pits his right-rear brakes caught fire and he did not return to the action.

Lewis Hamilton then jumped to the top of the leaderboard with a lap of 1:30.179s. He was soon ousted by Leclerc, however, who set a time of 1:30.044 on soft tyres. But Russell looking quick in his updated Mercedes took the honours with a lap of 1:29.938. Leclerc finished a tenth off that pace with Perez 0.212 adrift of Russell.

The session halted again in the closing stages when Williams’ Nicholas Latifi stopped at the side of the track after Turn 8. The Canadian reported that his car was behaving oddly and he feared the rear left wheel was not attached correctly, but then reported a loss of drive and stopped.

With Pérez third, fourth place went to Hamilton with Alonso fifth ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris. Pierre Gasly was seventh for AlphaTauri with Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu eighth ahead of Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and 10th-place Haas driver Kevin Magnussen.