F1: Russell puts Mercedes on top in 2nd Miami GP practice

Mercedes is back!

Having fixed their porpoising problem, Mercedes F1 is back on top in F1, but it’s not Lewis Hamilton. Instead, it was George Russell who again beat Hamilton and turned the fastest lap in practice 2 with a time of 1m29.938s to beat the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc by 0.106s

Notably, Max Verstappen sat out the early part of the session after a precautionary gearbox change, and then lost steering on his only lap out there with an apparent hydraulics issue. Having failed to finish 50% of the races so far this season with reliability issues, this was far from ideal for the Dutchman.

Also having a bad session was Carlos Sainz Jr who lost control of his Ferrari and wadded up the left side.

A big spin in FP1 wrecked his soft tires and cost him his chance of some quick laps on the red-marked rubber. In need of laps, he then crashed in FP2 and lost the opportunity yet again to get a feel for those soft tires…He will have some real catching up to do on Saturday.

Sergio Perez was 3rd quick for Red Bull, 0.212s behind while Hamilton put the 2nd Mercedes 4th, 0.241s behind his Mercedes teammate.

As well as Mercedes making a step forward, a big talking point is the fact that yet again Russell is able to extract slightly more from the W13 than his teammate. Hamilton was sporting some flow vis paint on his front wing so was in data gathering mode for some of that session but even so… It’s catch up time for the former world champion.

Fernando Alonso rounded out the top-5 for Alpine, 0.434s back.

Vettel wearing underwear over his race suit in protest of the FIA’s new clothing regulations

Practice 2 Results

POS DRIVER NAT. TEAM TIME BEHIND
1 George Russell GBR Mercedes AMG Petronas 1m29.938s +0.000
2 Charles Leclerc MON Scuderia Ferrari 1m30.044s +0.106
3 Sergio Perez MEX Oracle Bull Racing 1m30.150s +0.212
4 Lewis Hamilton GBR Mercedes AMG Petronas 1m30.179s +0.241
5 Fernando Alonso ESP BWT Alpine F1 Team 1m30.372s +0.434
6 Lando Norris GBR McLaren F1 Team 1m30.535s +0.597
7 Pierre Gasly FRA Scuderia AlphaTauri 1m30.547s +0.609
8 Guanyu Zhou CHN Alfa Romeo F1 Team Orlen 1m30.860s +0.922
9 Esteban Ocon FRA BWT Alpine F1 Team 1m30.861s +0.923
10 Kevin Magnussen DEN Haas F1 Team 1m30.921s +0.983
11 Carlos Sainz ESP Scuderia Ferrari 1m30.964s +1.026
12 Daniel Ricciardo AUS McLaren F1 Team 1m31.208s +1.270
13 Yuki Tsunoda JPN Scuderia AlphaTauri 1m31.260s +1.322
14 Sebastian Vettel GER Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant 1m31.393s +1.455
15 Mick Schumacher GER Haas F1 Team 1m31.587s +1.649
16 Lance Stroll CAN Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant 1m31.631s +1.693
17 Alexander Albon THA Williams Racing 1m31.710s +1.772
18 Nicholas Latifi CAN Williams Racing 1m32.913s +2.975
19 Max Verstappen NED Oracle Red Bull Racing No Time Set
20 Valtteri Bottas FIN Alfa Romeo F1 Team Orlen No Time Set

 

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