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Alfa Romeo
Williams
Racing Point
Red Bull
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Mercedes
Turkish Grand Prix FP2 was topped by Verstappen making it an all Dutchman-led Friday session; but Leclerc gave close chase throughout a session with even more sliding in the second free practice session.
Istanbul Park is seemingly defying F1 laws (not really) as tyres are not biting, times are not dropping, rubber is not laying. Whether to learn more about the C1 compound or simply get rid of them, drivers came out stubbornly on a rubber that might as well have been ice skates. By the end of the session, the entire grid was wearing C3 red boots. Albon had initially set the pace but was eventually usurped by Leclerc, Bottas, and Hamilton.
Kvyat and Gasly came in at P6 and P7 making a majority of the first 7 positions running Honda power.
The session was devoted strictly to testing programmes and gearing up for different race strategies. Verstappen seemed especially keen to stay out and understand the grip changes. What made this session unique was that the temperature dropped down as the session waned into the evening.
Vettel would land in the top 10 this session – he still looks fairly comfortable comparatively speaking. I have him on for points as of now. Stroll and Norris round out the top 10 – the latter was among the heavy programme runners similar to Verstappen that just subjectively seemed most concerned about changing track conditions that could occur out of no where. See below for the full session times and details.
GREEN TRACK, WET QUALI
Taking another look at Verstappen’s time measured across historic performance you’ll see we’ve yet to cross into track record territory – a handful of seconds off even. For reference, track record was set by Juan Pablo Montoya in 2005 with McLaren with a 1:24.770 blazing lap.
LATE FIA NOTE TO TEAMS
Also be mind of the fact that Michael Masi issued this official document to teams regarding tyre allocation. He’s approved an extra set of intermediates to be used so it’s likely the FIA are thinking inclement weather is brewing. Here is the brief message in full:
Article 24.4(f) of the Sporting Regulations “Based on the weather forecast from the official weather service provider one additional set of intermediate tyres will be made available to each driver before P3.”
Given the grid is already on ice skates, this should make for a spicy quali session. Seeing what we’ve seen so far, expect both Ferrari to come out better than most as well as any one comfortable in the rain e.g., Hamilton and Verstappen especially. Also there were still a fair amount of track limit breaches through turns 1, 6, and 14. Six remains the one I have my eye on as the following drivers made the FIA’s watch list:
- Albon picked 2 violations here
- Verstappen earned himself 3
- Latifi and Norris both grabbed 1 track limit breach a piece
Turkish Grand Prix FP2 Results
Below are the final results for The Turkish Grand Prix FP2 session:
| POS | DRIVER | TIME | GAP | LAPS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1:28.330 | 37 | ||
| 2 | 1:28.731 | +0.401s | 45 | |
| 3 | 1:28.905 | +0.575s | 43 | |
| 4 | 1:29.180 | +0.850s | 39 | |
| 5 | 1:29.363 | +1.033s | 42 | |
| 6 | 1:29.689 | +1.359s | 43 | |
| 7 | 1:29.944 | +1.614s | 43 | |
| 8 | 1:30.022 | +1.692s | 41 | |
| 9 | 1:30.297 | +1.967s | 38 | |
| 10 | 1:30.735 | +2.405s | 39 | |
| 11 | 1:31.104 | +2.774s | 38 | |
| 12 | 1:31.380 | +3.050s | 36 | |
| 13 | 1:31.493 | +3.163s | 39 | |
| 14 | 1:31.498 | +3.168s | 40 | |
| 15 | 1:31.660 | +3.330s | 35 | |
| 16 | 1:31.932 | +3.602s | 43 | |
| 17 | 1:32.302 | +3.972s | 39 | |
| 18 | 1:32.570 | +4.240s | 33 | |
| 19 | 1:32.807 | +4.477s | 37 | |
| 20 | 1:33.488 | +5.158s | 40 |
Turkish Grand Prix Outlook
Eerily absent from the session was the C2 tyre. It’s the worst kept secret on the grid this will be the tyre of choice – likely mainly due to the fact that the teams still don’t know how they track will behave once it begins to lose it’s green hue. Qualifying will give us an even better indication than normal about the racing scenarios as true pace will begin to show. Check back here to stay in the loop for all things Turkish Grand Prix at the Cranky Yankee Motorsport News Hub for Formula 1 coverage. Follow along with the F1 Live data platform covering sector by sector racing for every single session all season long.
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