FP2 Session: Sainz collides, Verstappen leads

In an adrenaline-fueled Monaco Grand Prix practice session, Formula 1 champion Max Verstappen seized the lead, with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz of Ferrari hot on his heels. The drama intensified when a crash by Sainz triggered a red flag, suspending the session and setting hearts racing.

Max Verstappen, the Formula 1 world champion, led the second practice session for the Monaco Grand Prix, followed closely by Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz of Ferrari. The session was interrupted by a red flag during the last 20 minutes due to a crash by Sainz.

Sainz demonstrated strong performance for most of the session, echoing his remarkable performance in the earlier FP1 session on Friday where he led, beating Fernando Alonso.

Starting the session on hard tyres, Sainz’s Ferrari showed an impressive speed, ranking third fastest while many others were on medium tyres. He then took the lead upon switching to soft tyres, recording a time of 1m2.569s.

However, a crash at the Swimming Pool chicane during the final third of the hour-long session, where he struck the inside wall which sent him into the right-hand wall at the corner’s exit, resulted in a red flag. Despite the interruption, the session continued with 12 minutes left, providing teams the opportunity to execute some extended-run simulations.

Despite his accident, Sainz finished third in the session standings, having been overtaken by Verstappen and Leclerc prior to his mishap.

Verstappen’s top session time was a 1m12.462s, placing him just 0.065 seconds ahead of Leclerc, and Sainz trailing by a slim 0.107s margin.

Fernando Alonso in his Aston Martin followed in fourth place, trailing the leaders by a quarter of a second. He concluded the session half a second ahead of his team-mate Lance Stroll, who did not make it into the top 10.

Lando Norris delivered a commendable performance in his McLaren, securing the fifth spot, but was instructed to halt his final run once the session resumed in order to limit his throttle use as he returned to the pit. Having faced an earlier delay due to adjustments being made to the front of his car by McLaren, Norris did not return to the track.

The superior among the improved Mercedes was Lewis Hamilton in sixth place, maintaining a lead over his team-mate George Russell who ranked 12th in the second W14, behind Stroll.

However, it seemed that was the limit of Mercedes’ speed in comparison to the leading cars. Upon learning about his sector-time deficits, Hamilton commented, “damn, [the] car won’t go much quicker”.

The reigning Monaco GP champion, Sergio Perez, only managed to secure the seventh position, falling more than half a second behind his record-setting Red Bull team-mate Verstappen. Valtteri Bottas, on the other hand, delivered an impressive performance by coming in eighth for Alfa Romeo, a team that decided to unveil its Monaco enhancements in the FP2 session.

Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon of Alpine Racing completed the top 10, while the top 14 positions were separated by less than a second, with Kevin Magnussen’s Haas wrapping up those slots.

Williams team had to undertake significant repair work on Alex Albon’s FW45, replacing the gearbox, front and rear wings, as well as the front and rear suspension after his crash at the end of the FP1 session to ensure he got some track time.

Despite managing to repair the car in time for the session’s conclusion, Albon’s track time was cut to just 11 minutes due to Sainz’s crash. Consequently, he achieved only the 19th fastest time, ahead of only his team-mate, Logan Sargeant.

FP2 Session Sainz collides Verstappen leads f1 2023 FP2 Session Sainz collides Verstappen leads f1 2023 FP2 Session Sainz collides Verstappen leads f1 2023

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