In the midst of all the mess caused by the announcement of the Contract Recognition Board, which gave the reason to McLaren and took it away from Alpine in the Oscar Piastri case, the single-seaters of the highest category of motorsport started the second and last session Free practice on Friday at Zandvoort delayed by 15 minutes as planned.
At the end of the 60-minute FP2 of the 2022 Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc led the Ferrari one-two with a best time of 1:12.345, just 0.004 seconds quicker than his team-mate Carlos Sainz.
Lewis Hamilton, at 0.072s, completed the top three. Behind, Lando Norris managed to register the fourth best mark, which helped him finish ahead of the other Mercedes, George Russell’s, and a surprising Lance Stroll.
Fernando Alonso took the seventh fastest time on Friday in Dutch territory, just ahead of the local hero, a Max Verstappen who was surprisingly far from the top positions, after suffering a breakdown that left him out of Free Practice 1.
Esteban Ocon and Daniel Ricciardo, who suffered a breakdown in his car, completed the top ten positions in the second practice session in Zandvoort, leaving out renowned drivers such as Sergio Pérez, from whom much more was expected on Friday .
Yuki Tsunoda brought out the only red flag of the session with around ten minutes remaining in Free Practice 2. The Japanese lost control of his car and ended up in one of the loopholes on the track, jamming his AlphaTauri in the gravel.
FP2 Results, Free Practice 2 of the Dutch GP 2022 F1
(Click on ‘see results’ to enjoy the entire table)
| Cla | Pilot | laps | Weather | Difference | Interval | Km/h | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Charles Leclerc |
 |
27 | 1’12.345 | 211.934 | ||
| two |  Carlos Sainz Jr. |
 |
30 | 1’12,349 | 0.004 | 0.004 | 211,922 |
| 3 |  Lewis Hamilton |
 |
21 | 1’12.417 | 0.072 | 0.068 | 211.723 |
| 4 | Lando Norris |
 |
24 | 1’12.448 | 0.103 | 0.031 | 211.633 |
| 5 | George Russell |
 |
27 | 1’12.655 | 0.310 | 0.207 | 211.030 |
| 6 |  Lance Stroll |
 |
28 | 1’12.746 | 0.401 | 0.091 | 210.766 |
| 7 | Fernando Alonso |
 |
25 | 1’12.848 | 0.503 | 0.102 | 210.471 |
| 8 |  Max Verstappen |
 |
22 | 1’13.042 | 0.697 | 0.194 | 209.912 |
| 9 |  Esteban Ocon |
 |
27 | 1’13.305 | 0.960 | 0.263 | 209.158 |
| 10 |  Daniel Ricciardo |
 |
10 | 1’13.362 | 1.017 | 0.057 | 208.996 |
| see results | |||||||
Photo by: Erik Junius
Photo by: Erik Junius
Photo by: Erik Junius
Photo by: Erik Junius
Photo by: Erik Junius
Photo by: Erik Junius
Photo by: Erik Junius
Photo by: Erik Junius
Photo by: Erik Junius
Photo by: Erik Junius
Photo by: Erik Junius
Photo de: Erik Junius
Photo by: Erik Junius
Photo by: Erik Junius
Photo by: Erik Junius
Photo by: Erik Junius
Photo by: Erik Junius
Photo by: Erik Junius
Photo by: Erik Junius
Photo by: Erik Junius
Photo by: Erik Junius
Photo by: Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Foto de: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
Photo de: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Alastair Staley / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
F1 Dutch GP 2022 FP2 Recap Free Practice 2
The second free practice session of the Dutch Grand Prix was started after a 15-minute delay and with the news of the resolution of the Oscar Piastri case, who will finally drive for McLaren from 2023.
From the beginning, all the drivers, with the exception of Pierre Gasly, took to the Zandvoort tarmac, the vast majority of them on medium tyres. However, Verstappen, on the softs, quickly moved into first place with a 1m13.465s.
Behind, the Ferraris were placed closing the first three positions, with Carlos Sainz less than a tenth of the Dutch driver. The Mercedes, who had led the first practice session, were positioned fourth and sixth, separated by Norris.
Meanwhile, Alonso was the only one who bet on the harder compound and saw how he could not get past tenth position after one of the Mercedes frustrated one of his fastest laps at the beginning of the session.
Close to completing the ten laps , all drivers returned to their garages with the first part of the race simulation program complete, leaving the Dutch track in absolute silence.
At that moment, Sainz had climbed to first place thanks to his 1:13.412, just ahead of his teammate, a Leclerc who was only 0.025 seconds behind, both drivers with mediums.
Alex Albon was the first to break the silence with 40 minutes remaining on the Free Practice 2 stopwatch, although his loneliness in Zandvoort was rather short-lived.
The Spanish Ferrari driver further improved his time, dropping to 1:12.349 on soft. Verstappen was unable to match his time and fell behind 0.693 seconds, just above the 1:13 barrier.
Alonso climbed to second position with a 1:12.848, being the second driver who dropped to 1:12. Although that second place did not last long, since Russell improved the Spanish’s time by almost two tenths. His teammate, Hamilton, improved even more and was just 0.068s behind Sainz, all on the softs.
A few minutes later, Norris at the wheel of his McLaren split the two McLarens with a 1m12.448s that put him in third position. In turn, Leclerc did the same and climbed to first position thanks to his 1:12.345, 0.004s faster than Sainz.
Once this kind of shorter run with the red tire was over, all the drivers returned to the pits to make some adjustments before returning to the track to continue working on the long runs, key for Sunday’s race.
The session went normally for almost all the drivers, with the exception of Daniel Ricciardo who had to end FP2 early due to a hydraulic leak in his McLaren.
At the back of the time table, Valtteri Bottas, Kevin Magnussen and Nicholas Latifi held the last positions with quite a difference.
With just over 10 minutes remaining in Free Practice 2, Yuki Tsunoda went off the track and his AlphaTauri got stuck in the gravel, first causing a yellow flag which seconds later turned into a red flag.
With four minutes still on the clock, the second practice session resumed and all the drivers who had not suffered a mishap took the opportunity to go out on the track in search of the latest data.
Finally, no one managed to improve their times on the last timed lap of the session and Charles Leclerc took the fastest time, ahead of his teammate Carlos Sainz, with the two Red Bull drivers much further than expected.
