We're halfway through the last but one round of the 2022 F1 season, as drivers have just gone through FP2 in Brazil. This was their last chance to set up the car for the upcoming sprint race, and also to gather valuable data about how the cars are performing at Interlagos. The stakes are still high for most drivers, as everyone will be trying to secure more valuable points this weekend.
Allow us to start by commending Sebastian Vettel for his diligence today in FP2. The retiring German driver drove for a total of 44 laps, as he's enjoying his last outing at Interlagos behind the wheel of an F1 car. Even so, his lap time of 1:16.400 was only good enough to have him sitting in P18 overall.
The only two drivers slower than him were Zhou Guanyu from Alfa Romeo and Logan Sargeant from Williams. Given Sargeant's limited F1 experience, we'd say this is still a good result for him, as he was just 1.876 seconds behind the fastest man of the session.
And that man happens to be Esteban Ocon, the 26-year-old Alpine Renault driver from France. This year, he has celebrated his 100th Grand Prix start, but it hasn't been particularly easy for him so far.
He scored his first and only career victory in Hungary last year, and he hasn't had any other podium finishes except for the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix. He set a fast lap of 1:14.604, which was just 0.184 seconds ahead of Sergio Perez. George Russell doesn't seem to be phased by his previous incident this weekend, and he was third fastest in FP2.
Photo: Red Bull Racing
Fernando Alonso's time with Alpine Renault is coming to an end this month after a relatively brief two-year stint with the French team. He hasn't managed a podium finish since the 2021 Qatar Grand Prix, but he certainly has it in him to get there.
He was less than half a second slower than Ocon today, which has him sitting in P4. Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton followed closely behind with similar performances. Both Haas drivers worked hard in FP2, with Schumacher driving for 40 laps and Magnussen for a total of 38. So they got up to a well-deserved P8 and P9 before the sprint race.
It's proving to be a tough weekend for Ferrari so far, as Carlos Sainz finished this practice session in P11. Yuki Tsunoda was just 0.009 seconds behind, while Leclerc would only be fast enough for P13. Valtteri Bottas was once again slower than Daniel Ricciardo today, and we can only hope that the Australian driver will put on a good show this weekend, too.
His performance in Mexico was good enough to get him the award for Driver of the Day, and his fans are still hoping that someone will give him a seat in the championship soon. The Sprint race is set to start in less than one hour from now, and if it doesn't rain, chances are Verstappen will once again rise above the competition.
The things Dragos enjoys the most in life are, in no particular order: cars, motorcycles, diecast cars, and drifting. He's seen (and driven) many vehicles since he started his writing career back in 2009, but his garage currently houses a 1991 Mazda RX-7 FC3S Turbo II and a 1999 Suzuki SV650-S. Full profile
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