Qatar, FP2: Bottas quickest in second practice in Qatar

Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas topped the timesheet in the second practice session at Qatar’s Losail circuit with AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly second ahead of Max Verstappen. Lewis Hamilto finished fourth.

During the opening phase of the session, mostly run on medium tyres, Verstappen set the early pace with a lap of 1:24.285. AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda then went faster on a with a medium-tyre time of 1:24.233 before the championship leader jumped back to the top of the order with a lap of 1:23.743.

Hamilton and Bottas then each claimed top spot on mediums with the Briton going quickest with a 1:23.604 before his Finnish team-mate edged ahead thanks to a tour of 1:23.324.

The field then began to make the switch to soft tyres with Bottas posting a 1:23.154, However, that time was deleted for tracks limits, as Race Director Michael Masi has informed teams that any driver going off the purple and red kerbs at any corner would have the lap in question deleted.

Despite losing that time Bottas eventually put in a clean lap and he took P1 with a lap of 123.148s just after the session passed the halfway point.

Further back Hamilton grabbed third place while Gasly continued AlphaTauri’s impress early Losail form with a lap of 1:23.357. Sergio Pérez, though, backed out his flying lap after getting mired in traffic.

Verstappen then appeared for his qualifying simulation runs but on his first attempt the Dutch driver went wide in Turn 10 and finished 0.431s off Bottas. He returned to the pits and then made another attempt which moved him to third place as he closed to 0.350s behind the Finn.

With Hamilton fourth, fifth place went to McLaren’s Lando Norris with Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll seventh ahead of the second AlphaTauri of Yuki Tsunoda. Pérez got in a flying lap to wind up eighth, 0.639s off Bottas. The Mexican lost track time, however, as his team worked to fix and issue with his DRS during the last 20 minutes. Sebastian Vettel, finished ninth and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz completed the top 10 order.

Haas’ Nikita Mazepin did not take part in the session after damaging his chassis on the kerbs in the first hour of practice.