Practice report

Formula 1 São Paulo GP

Brazilian GP: Ocon tops second F1 practice from Perez

Alpine Formula 1 driver Esteban Ocon set the pace over Sergio Perez and George Russell in an event-less second free practice session ahead of the 2022 Brazilian Grand Prix.

Matt Kew

Matt Kew

Edited: Nov 13, 2022, 12:13 AM

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Esteban Ocon, Alpine A522

The hour of FP2 running, that during a sprint weekend falls between the Friday qualifying session and half-distance Saturday race,  has drawn widespread criticism about its uselessness.

With no need to chase one-lap pace, race runs dominated the order as Ocon came out on top despite running only with a scrubbed set of the red-walled soft tyres over Red Bull's Perez.

The Ferraris led the way initially as soft-shod Leclerc lapped in 1m15.868s to hold a couple of tenths over medium-tyred teammate Sainz before Russell moved to the top for some time.

He ran on the softest C4 compound to a 1m15.115s and then improved by another 0.2s to sit 0.57s clear of hard-tyre benchmark Sergio Perez, Pierre Gasly, Lewis Hamilton and Friday qualifying star Kevin Magnussen, who set the pace on the C3 yellow-walled medium tyres.

After the 2023 Pirelli tyre tests that took over FP2 in the United States and Mexico, the pre-sprint practice was similarly tedious as race simulations dominated the opening half an hour.

The Ferraris, for instance, were only sixth and seventh as Max Verstappen was 12th on hards.

Notably, Nicholas Latifi locked up his inside wheel heavily into the penultimate corner that leads up the hill to the timing line, meaning he ploughed over the grass before rejoining.

Fitted with a scrubbed set of softs, Ocon was finally able to demote Russell as the Alpine driver posted the fastest first sector of the session at that point to drop his time to 1m14.604s.

Hamilton improved to third on his next run on used softs, lapping 0.22s off his teammate.

The Red Bulls then put themselves in the mix with 20 minutes to go as, on their first runs on used softs, Perez ran to second (0.184s down) and Verstappen fourth to split the Mercedes.

With no late flurry of qualifying simulations as per a conventional F1 weekend, Ocon remained on top over Perez and Russell, while teammate Fernando Alonso ran to fourth.

Verstappen completed the top five ahead of Hamilton, Gasly and under-threat Haas driver Mick Schumacher who extracted 0.15s over his ninth-quickest stablemate Magnussen.

Lando Norris completed the top 10 over Sainz as Leclerc ran to 13th behind Yuki Tsunoda.

Daniel Ricciardo, who complained of snaps over oversteer across compounds, was 14th.

In the only change to the regular driver line-ups, Logan Sergeant replaced Alex Albon in the Williams as he seeks to earn the super licence points to lock in his F1 promotion for 2023.

The American FIA F2 racer propped up the times and exited the car with 10 minutes to run.

Cla Driver Chassis Engine Laps Time Gap 1 France Esteban Ocon
Alpine A522 Alpine Renault 28 1'14.604 2 Mexico Sergio Perez
Red Bull RB18 Red Bull Red Bull 36 1'14.788 0.184 3 United Kingdom George Russell
Mercedes W13 Mercedes Mercedes 31 1'14.916 0.312 4 Spain Fernando Alonso
Alpine A522 Alpine Renault 29 1'15.049 0.445 5 Netherlands Max Verstappen
Red Bull RB18 Red Bull Red Bull 30 1'15.098 0.494 6 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes W13 Mercedes Mercedes 33 1'15.137 0.533 7 France Pierre Gasly
AlphaTauri AT03 AlphaTauri Red Bull 32 1'15.636 1.032 8 Germany Mick Schumacher
Haas VF-22 Haas Ferrari 40 1'15.684 1.080 9 Denmark Kevin Magnussen
Haas VF-22 Haas Ferrari 38 1'15.815 1.211 10 United Kingdom Lando Norris
McLaren MCL36 McLaren Mercedes 25 1'15.851 1.247 11 Spain Carlos Sainz
Ferrari F1-75 Ferrari Ferrari 38 1'15.856 1.252 12 Japan Yuki Tsunoda
AlphaTauri AT03 AlphaTauri Red Bull 32 1'15.865 1.261 13 Monaco Charles Leclerc
Ferrari F1-75 Ferrari Ferrari 37 1'15.868 1.264 14 Australia Daniel Ricciardo
McLaren MCL36 McLaren Mercedes 28 1'15.994 1.390 15 Finland Valtteri Bottas
Alfa Romeo C42 Alfa Romeo Ferrari 34 1'16.047 1.443 16 Canada Nicholas Latifi
Williams FW44 Williams Mercedes 34 1'16.181 1.577 17 Canada Lance Stroll
Aston Martin AMR22 Aston Martin Mercedes 43 1'16.263 1.659 18 Germany Sebastian Vettel
Aston Martin AMR22 Aston Martin Mercedes 44 1'16.400 1.796 19 China Zhou Guanyu
Alfa Romeo C42 Alfa Romeo Ferrari 37 1'16.468 1.864 20 United States Logan Sargeant
Williams FW44 Williams Mercedes 28 1'16.480 1.876 View full results

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