Good feeling for the Alpine team before the qualifying race.
Esteban Ocon has led the second free practice of the Brazilian F1 Grand Prix, a session without much relevance, since it is disputed between the classification and the sprint classification race, but where the Alpine team has surprised with a performance that places it at the top.
Ocon has commanded the Interlagos track after setting a time of 1:16.604, with which the Frenchman has surpassed Sergio Pérez by only one tenth and George Russell by three, who will start the race from the same third position. Nobody knows how much fuel the cars have run in this session, so it is impossible to know the real position of each one.
Behind the top three, it is surprising to find Fernando Alonso in fourth place, having set his best time on medium tyres. The Spaniard left four tenths with his teammate, Ocon, and this afternoon he will start from seventh place in the qualifying race with the aim of adding points and improving the starting position for tomorrow’s Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen has finished in fifth position in Free Practice 2, a result that does not reflect the performance of his Red Bull at all. This afternoon, in the qualifying race, Max will start from second place on the grid and is one of the favorites to achieve victory and first place for tomorrow’s GP. And it is that, Magnussen, the poleman, will have few options to keep him behind.
To find Carlos Sainz, who was the best Ferrari of the session, you have to go down to eleventh place. His partner, Charles Leclerc, was thirteenth.
The Scuderia have made numerous mistakes so far this weekend, and one of them was putting intermediate tires on Leclerc when the track was dry yesterday in qualifying. For this reason, the Monegasque could only qualify tenth. Sainz will start fifth in the qualifying race.
In Free Practice 2 we have seen the American Logan Sargeant on the track, who continues to train and add kilometers of experience at the wheel of the Williams F1 to collect the necessary points for the super license and thus be able to become the driver of the Grove team next season.
F1 will be back in action for the sprint qualifying race, which kicks off at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday.
