After the rain in Japan interrupted the first official test of the new Pirelli tires for the 2023 Formula 1 season , the teams and drivers were finally able to test the compounds that they will have next season in Free Practice 2 of the United States GP Joined.
This FP2 session lasted longer than usual, 90 minutes , to give the teams the opportunity to test these experimental tires and, in turn, work on their programs to set up their cars for the rest of the event in the Circuit of the Americas.
At the end of an hour and a half of a very unrepresentative Free Practice 2 due to the little information provided by Pirelli’s experimental compounds for 2023, Charles Leclerc set the best time of the day with a 1:36.810 and soft tires, followed by Valtteri Bottas and Daniel Ricciardo, who also fitted the 2022 tires.
Behind, all the drivers lapped only with the compounds of the next year and Carlos Sainz was the fastest, which helped him to finish fourth almost a second and a half behind his Ferrari team-mate and more than a second ahead of Mick Schumacher, who was fifth.
Lando Norris finished sixth, ahead of Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton. Some results that were a clear example of how unrepresentative FP2 of the United States GP had been.
Closing the top ten positions were Pierre Gasly and Sergio Pérez, while to see the position of Fernando Alonso you had to go to the back of the grid, seventeenth, behind Esteban Ocon (16th), about 4.5s off the fastest time of the journey.
Results of the Free Practice 2 (FP2) of the US GP 2022 of F1
| Cla | Pilot | laps | Weather | Difference | Interval | Km/h | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Charles Leclerc |
 |
37 | 1’36.810 | 205.007 | ||
| 2 |  Valtteri Bottas |
 |
37 | 1’37.525 | 0.715 | 0.715 | 203.504 |
| 3 |  Daniel Ricciardo |
 |
40 | 1’37.627 | 0.817 | 0.102 | 203.292 |
| 4 |  Carlos Sainz Jr. |
 |
26 | 1’38,232 | 1,422 | 0.605 | 202,040 |
| 5 |  Mick Schumacher |
 |
26 | 1’39.507 | 2.697 | 1.275 | 199.451 |
| 6 |  Lando Norris |
 |
26 | 1’39.547 | 2.737 | 0.040 | 199.371 |
| 7 |  Max Verstappen |
 |
26 | 1’39.575 | 2.765 | 0.028 | 199.315 |
| 8 | Lewis Hamilton |
 |
26 | 1’39.698 | 2.888 | 0.123 | 199.069 |
| 9 |  Pierre Gasly |
 |
26 | 1’39,840 | 3,030 | 0.142 | 198,786 |
| 10 |  Sergio Perez |
 |
26 | 1,39,852 | 3,042 | 0.012 | 198,762 |
| see results | |||||||
Photo by: Sam Bloxham/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Sam Bloxham/Motorsport Images
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Foto de: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
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Photo by: Mark Sutton/Motorsport Images
Foto de: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
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Foto de: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
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Foto de: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Photo de: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
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Foto de: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Sam Bloxham/Motorsport Images
Foto de: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
Summary of the second practices (Free Practice 2) of the United States GP 2022 of F1
The second free practice session, which lasted 90 minutes due to the Pirelli tests with the 2023 compounds, started with a lot of activity on the track and, in fact, during the first stages of the session almost all the drivers were betting on those tires experimental.
The first time was recorded by Daniel Ricciardo, with a 1:40.474 with the medium compounds of this season. Meanwhile, the pilots who were shooting with the experimental compound could not get close to their time.
A few minutes later, Charles Leclerc, on softs and who had missed FP1 after leaving his car to Robert Shwartzman, took first place with a 1m38.856s .
Sainz and Hamilton were the first to move ahead of the drivers who had opted for the 2022 tyres, placing second and fourth respectively, with a best time of 1m39.996s for the Spanish Ferrari driver.
Although practically all of them were slower on the 2023 compounds compared to the drivers on the 2022 ones, the peculiarity is that nobody, except for Pirelli, knew which tire they were testing [soft, medium or hard].
At the end of the first half hour of FP2, all the teams had to return to the pits to finish the qualifying simulations with Pirelli’s experimental compounds and start the long runs with more fuel.
At the time, Leclerc was leading the timesheets with a 1m36.810s on softs, ahead of Ricciardo, Bottas, Sainz and Mick Schumacher, while Max Verstappen was seventh, Hamilton eighth and Alonso 17th. Some positions that reflected the little veracity of these Free 2 until that moment.
Due to the fact that the single-seaters were heavier and that it was not known which tire each driver was wearing, the time table did not change and the information was practically nil.
Except for some setback suffered by a driver on the track, such as a small skid by Alonso or a brush by Lando Norris that forced him to return to the pits, the session went completely normally and Leclerc, Bottas and Ricciardo were the only ones who continued to fit the tires of 2022, largely due to the fact that they had not been able to shoot in FP1.
Entering the last half hour of Free Practice 2, Leclerc, Bottas and Ricciardo also dared to mount the experimental Pirelli compounds, while the time table did not vary at all and the Monegasque continued to lead, ahead of the Finn from Alfa Romeo and of the Australian from McLaren, who had set their best times with the tires of this campaign.
In the closing minutes of the session, virtually no cars took to the track, with many of the cars on trestles well before the lights reached zero. As far as the timesheets go, nothing changed for the last 40-60 minutes , so Leclerc eventually led with a 1m36.810s on 2022 soft tyres, ahead of Bottas and Ricciardo.
