Charles Leclerc topped the timesheets of the second practice session at this weekends United States Grand Prix – which was extended from 60 to 90 minutes for Pirelli’s prototype 2023 tyre test.
Returning for FP2 – after sitting FP1 so their teams could run rookie drivers – Leclerc, Valtteri Bottas and Daniel Ricciardo ran personalised programmes for the first part of the session.
And it was the Ferrari driver who set the quickest lap of FP2, with a time of 1m 36.810s on the medium tyre to lead Bottas, in second, by 0.715s. Ricciardo rounded out the top three, finishing 0.817s off Leclerc’s time.
FP2: Leclerc tops extended practice session in Austin as drivers test 2023 Pirelli tyres
There where no major incidents in the session as the remaining drivers completed 26 laps of testing apiece, although we did see Lando Norris narrowly avoid the wall at the pit entry after a huge slide, while Kevin Magnussen was confined to the pit lane for parts of practice with an issue in his cockpit – limiting him to 24 laps.
Watch the action from FP2 in Austin as we get set for an action-packed Saturday, which begins with FP3 at 1400 local time.