FP2: Leclerc leads Piastri during second practice as Norris deliberately hides McLaren’s pace

Having led the opening one-hour practice, Charles Leclerc continued to display the spectacular performace of his upgraded SF-24, albeit McLaren’s Lando Norris might have simply topped the session had he not aborted his qualifying simulation lap. F1Technical’s senior author Balázs Szabó stories on Free Practice 2 from Imola.

Charles Leclerc set the benchmark time within the second one-hour practice on the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, posting a time of 1m15.906s on Pirelli’s comfortable tyres.

While Ferrari appeared to have an edge over its rivals on Friday, McLaren displayed eye-catching pace with each drives. Oscar Piastri took second solely two tenths of a second adrift of Leclerc. His team-mate Lando Norris completed down in P12, however his qualifying simulation lap would have been sufficient for him to high the session, however he aborted his lap in Sector 3 and dived into the pits.

Yuki Tsunoda took a superb P3 within the afternoon session on an important weekend for his group as Visa RB’s fatory is just a few miles away from the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari. However, the Japanese driver might be investigated after the session for a possible practice begin infringement.

Having introduced just a few upgrades for the primary European race of the season, Mercedes seemed fast on all compounds. Lewis Hamilton and George Russell had an honest day, racking up a complete of 28 and 31 laps. The seven-time world champion completed the one-hour session in P4, fourth tenths of a second off Leclerc’s benchmark. His team-mate Russell was solely fractionally slower as he took P5.