Leclerc tops FP2 ahead of Sainz in Ferrari 1-2

The second one-hour practice session of the day got underway in the same sunny conditions as FP1, but with a 15-minute delay due to two red flag periods delaying Formula 2 qualifying – the support series session taking place just before FP2.

Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll led the pack out at 4.15pm local time and duly set the first place benchmark at 1m14.370s using the medium tyres.

Most of the pack ran this rubber during the early stages – including Lando Norris, Leclerc and Sainz, who each demoted Stroll down the order with quicker times in the Canadian’s wake.

Shortly after Sainz had popped in his 1m13.544, Verstappen came through to complete his first flier of the day after his FP1 gearbox issue.

The Dutchman was immediately given a set of soft tyres by Red Bull, which he took to a 1m13.465s and the top spot.

The field spent the rest of the opening 15 minutes building up to speed, with Verstappen remaining quickest but not gaining time on his subsequent laps on the red-walled rubber.

Sainz then retook first place with a 1m13.412s to edge back ahead of Verstappen, as did Leclerc a few minutes later to slot in behind his team-mate, before a lull in action occurred as the drivers that had started on the harder tyres returned to the pits to switch to the softs.

After Alex Albon had leapt up the order on that compound while most of the pack were still in the pits, Sainz was the first of the frontrunners to head out on the softs.

The Spaniard blitzed to then-fastest times in all three sectors to improve the P1 benchmark to a 1m12.349s, despite enduring a heavy kerbstrike as he ran out wide through the penultimate corner.

Verstappen was next to set a qualifying simulation effort – using a new set of the compound he had started the session on – but his time came in a massive 0.697s slower than Sainz.

This left a big gap for others to slot into, with FP1 pacesetter George Russell initially moving into second before he was shuffled down by Norris, who managed to edge Sainz in the first sector, and Lewis Hamilton in the other Mercedes, which had had radio problems during the early FP2 running.

Just past the halfway mark, Leclerc, who had been one of the last drivers to come in to pit and take off the medium tyres early on, finally headed back out to complete a soft-shod flier.

Although he did not top the times in any of the three sectors, Leclerc managed to string…