F1 – Leclerc continues to set the pace in Imola as Verstappen battles ‘difficult’ Red Bull

Charles added the quickest lap of second follow to his P1 time from the opening session, with the Ferrari driver outpacing McLaren’s Oscar Piastri by virtually two tenths of a second as championship chief Max Verstappen continued to wrestle with the steadiness of his Crimson Bull RB20 and completed seventh. 

After a troubled opening session wherein he went off observe twice, Verstappen appeared extra comfy firstly of FP2 and he moved into an early lead with a time of 1:16.930 forward of McLaren’s Lando Norris and the Ferrari vehicles of Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. 

After 13 minutes Leclerc moved to the highest of the order with a lap of 1:16.677 set on Medium tyres and shortly after the sector started to maneuver to C5 Tender compound tyres for qualifying simulations. Mercedes 

George Russell put in a lap of 1:16.820 on the red-banded Pirelli tyres to go fourth, 0.143s off Leclerc’s main effort set on medium, earlier than the Ferrari drive prolonged his benefit on Softs with a lap 1:15.969 shifting half a second away from nearest challenger Sainz.

On the half approach mark Piastri then cut up the Ferraris simply 0.129s off Leclerc. Nonetheless, additional again Verstappen may solely handle fourth and practically half a second again and he was quickly bounced out as Russell improved to 1:16.311 to go third. 

With 27 minutes left on the clock RB’s Yuki Tsunoda jumped to 3rd place simply three-tenths off Leclerc. Nonetheless, the Monegasque driver then discovered extra time and tightened his grip on P1 with a time of 1:15.906s. Hamilton additionally discovered time and moved as much as fourth for Mercedes. 

Additional again although, Verstappen was once more battling the Dutchman complaining on the radio that “it is so troublesome, every little thing man, this time abruptly the entrance grips up so much and I virtually spin”.

In the long run the championship chief’s greatest time of 1:16.447 was solely ok for seventh place behind, a tenth forward of team-mate Sergio Pérez. Verstappen’s sad Friday was capped by an off-track second 5 minutes from the tip of the session. This time the Dutch driver misplaced management within the between the 2 Rivazza corners and he was pressured by way of run-off. 

On the high, Leclerc doubled up on his FP1 first place, 0.192 forward of Piastri and with Tsunoda third forward of Hamilton, Russell and Sainz. With Verstappen and Perez seventh and eighth respectively, ninth place went to Haas’ Nico Hülkenberg, and the highest 10 was rounded out by Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso. 

2024 FIA Formulation 1 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix – Free Follow 2 
1 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:15.906 29 232.819
2 Oscar Piastri McLaren/Mercedes 1:16.098 0.192 30 232.232
3 Yuki Tsunoda RB/Honda RBPT 1:16.286 0.380 32 231.659
4 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:16.297 0.391 29 231.626
5 George Russell Mercedes 1:16.311 0.405 32 231.583
6 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:16.423 0.517 30 231.244
7 Max Verstappen Crimson Bull/Honda RBPT 1:16.447 0.541 23 231.171
8 Sergio Pérez Crimson Bull/Honda RBPT 1:16.552 0.646 25 230.854
9 Nico Hülkenberg Haas/Ferrari 1:16.826 0.920 28 230.031
10 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:16.838 0.932 29 229.995
11 Daniel Ricciardo RB/Honda RBPT 1:16.967 1.061 32 229.610
12 Lando Norris McLaren/Mercedes 1:16.980 1.074 30 229.571
13 Lance Stroll Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:16.991 1.085 26 229.538
14 Esteban Ocon Alpine/Renault 1:17.008 1.102 31 229.487
15 Pierre Gasly Alpine/Renault 1:17.064 1.158 32 229.321
16 Valtteri Bottas Kick Sauber/Ferrari 1:17.088 1.182 28 229.249
17 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 1:17.129 1.223 32 229.127
18 Alexander Albon Williams/Mercedes 1:17.135 1.229 23 229.110
19 Zhou Guanyu Kick Sauber/Ferrari 1:17.606 1.700 28 227.719
20 Logan Sargeant Williams/Mercedes 1:17.848 1.942 22 227.011