2022 British Grand Prix: Sainz fastest as Norris stars in FP2

Formula 1 2022: British Gp
Formula 1 2022: British Gp

Free practice 2 for the 2022 British Grand Prix began with the circuit having dried out from a wet FP1 earlier in the afternoon. Valtteri Bottas claimed top spot in that session, but with a full roster of cars tearing around Silverstone, normal service was resumed.

Carlos Sainz set the fastest time on Friday afternoon, but it was McLaren’s Lando Norris who surprised everybody by taking P2. It wasn’t the best day for Charles Leclerc though, as he could only manage P5, behind title rival Max Verstappen. Here’s the full rundown!

Painting the track red

With limited running in FP1, all of the teams were eager to get out onto the circuit as quickly as possible. Max Verstappen was pushing the limits in his Red Bull, but it was the Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz that topped the timings after the first runs. Verstappen remained P3, with his teammate Sergio Perez directly behind him at the halfway point.

Sir Lewis Hamilton was complaining of bouncing in his Mercedes, but the seven-time world champion still managed P5 halfway through the session.

Formula 1 2022: British Gp
Lando Norris produced arguably the best result of the day with P3

Drivers began to do their qualifying runs, with Lando Norris vaulting to the top of the timing sheets. Sainz would soon best Norris’ time, but only by a tenth of a second. Fernando Alonso was sitting an impressive P4, but his Alpine was also suffering with some serious porpoising going into Copse.

With 15 minutes remaining, another Brit claimed P2 in the standings, as Hamilton went seven thousandths of a second faster than Norris. Red Bull showed some of the pace they’re capable of too, as Verstappen went up into P4. Towards the end of the session, teams focused on long runs, so the standings didn’t change much in the final ten minutes.

Sainz on top showed Ferrari have good pace here, but five constructors in the top six places shows how close the pack is around Silverstone too.

Driver reaction

In the press duties at the end of the day, Sergio Perez lamented Red Bull’s lack of pace on Friday. The Mexican, who sits second in the driver’s standings, said that his car was “miles off” the pace:

“It wasn’t a great session today,” said Checo. “The car is miles off – so we assume that there’s something going on that we need to understand. And yes, it was a very, very short long run there at the end. So yes, not a great start. We are a bit on the back foot, so we just have to understand what’s going on with it.”

Max Verstappen had similar feelings, stating that it didn’t surprise him to see Ferrari fastest overall. The championship leader also stated though, that it wasn’t something that concerned him:

“I think we know what we have to work on and that’s what we’ll try to do overnight, but again tomorrow probably it’s raining so we have again different type of conditions.”

2021 Qatar Grand Prix, Saturday - Lewis Hamilton
Could we see these scenes again on Sunday?

Sir Lewis Hamilton was very upbeat after his pair of second places today. The seven-time world champion stated that Mercedes have “definitely made an improvement” from their performance in Canada.

Surprisingly, despite his third place in FP2, Lando Norris wasn’t overjoyed with his “sketchy” car on Friday:

“It’s been a tricky day, the wind conditions make it extremely difficult. It’s still difficult to put things together and to be consistent and so on, especially in the long run.”

Full Classification

PosDriverNo.TeamTime
1Carlos Sainz55Ferrari1:28.942
2Lewis Hamilton44Mercedes+0.163
3Lando Norris3McLaren+0.176
4Max Verstappen33Red Bull+0.207
5Charles Leclerc16Ferrari+0.462
6Fernando Alonso14Alpine+0.753
7Sergio Perez11Red Bull+0.811
8George Russell63Mercedes+0.857
9Daniel Ricciardo3McLaren+0.960
10Lance Stroll18Aston Martin+1.000
11Valtteri Bottas77Alfa Romeo+1.058
12Sebastian Vettel5Aston Martin+1.115
13Esteban Ocon31Alpine+1.296
14Alex Albon23Williams+1.321
15Zhou Gunayu24Alfa Romeo+1.329
16Yuki Tsunoda22AlphaTauri+1.396
17Kevin Magnussen20Haas+1.538
18Pierre Gasly10AlphaTauri+1.568
19Mick Schuamcher47Haas+1.667
20Nicholas Latifi6Williams+2.384

Grid Talk Podcast

Want more content to preview the 2022 British Grand Prix? The Grid Talk crew previewed the race in their latest podcast. Tom Horrox hosted Olivia Kairu, Warren Schorr and Sophia Richmond in episode 208 of the show. Audio and video versions of the podcast are available below:

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