F1 GP Arabia free practice 2: Alonso precedes Russell and Verstappen. Ferrari, Leclerc 4th and Sainz 7th

If the outcome of these free practice 2 of the Arabian GP were real, it would be the prelude to a great weekend. Because Fernando Alonso with Aston Martin placed himself at the top of the time table in 1’28″827. We need to verify tomorrow’s qualifying session and above all the race. But it is certainly interesting that at the test of the first track on which the new cars did not work in the tests (in Bahrain the teams knew everything) the day of free practice gave apparently level values. Second at 230 thousandths was George Russell with Mercedes, while the champion of world Max Verstappen.

sainz debilitated

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Ferrari ended the day with Charles Leclerc’s fourth place, just 22 thousandths behind the Dutchman and ahead of Sergio Perez’s second Red Bull. Of course, at the end of the session we saw that the champion cars, in race pace simulation, are still extremely competitive and therefore we shouldn’t make hasty judgments. Seventh time of the session for Carlos Sainz junior, who struggled quite a bit today due to the stomach problems that weakened him yesterday.

hamilton risk

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Lewis Hamilton finished only eighth in the second Mercedes, furthermore just 6 tenths behind Alonso. At the beginning of the session, the Englishman inadvertently caused an impediment to Sainz and forced Sargeant’s Williams to make a dangerous swerve to the right to avoid Mercedes and Ferrari, one of the most dangerous moments of the day. Ninth was Pierre Gasly with the Alpine ahead of the first McLaren, that of Oscar Piastri. Eleventh Yuki Tsunoda with the Racing Bulls, 12th Lando Norris with the second McLaren. Daniel Ricciardo and Valtteri Bottas with Racing Bulls and Sauber close the ranking. Free practice 3 will take place on Friday at 2.30pm and qualifying at 6pm.

times

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Here is the ranking of the Free Practice 2 of the Arabian GP:

• Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin 1:28.827
• George Russell, Mercedes +0.230
• Max Verstappen, Red Bull +0.331
• Charles Leclerc, Ferrari +0.353
• Sergio Perez, Red Bull +0.473
• Lance Stroll, Aston Martin +0.509
• Carlos Sainz, Ferrari +0.628
• Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes +0.677
• Pierre Gasly, Alpine +0.701
• Oscar Piastri, McLaren +0.767
• Yuki Tsunoda, Racing Bulls +0.839
• Lando Norris, McLaren +0.931
• Guanyu Zhou, Sauber +0.950
• Alexander Albon, Williams +0.962
• Esteban Ocon, Alpine +1,074
• Logan Sargeant, Williams +1,107
• Kevin Magnussen, Haas +1.158
• Nico Hulkenberg, Haas +1,250
• Daniel Ricicardo, Racing Bulls +1,261
• Valtteri Bottas, Sauber +1,326