F1 Imola GP live commentary and updates - FP2
Updates from FP2 at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix
Live Commentary
By: Jake Boxall-Legge
And that's it for Friday's running, with FP1 and FP2 in the bag. Piastri headlines both sessions, with a tiny margin over Norris - and there's plenty of work to do overnight.
We'll see you tomorrow for FP3 and qualifying - keep an eye on Autosport and Motorsport.com for all of the Friday stories and analysis.
Question for whatever the F1 version of Football Cliches is - can you "come home" at the end of a practice session?
Imola FP2 complete - Piastri fastest over Norris
And that's your lot for Friday practice! Piastri is 0.025s faster than Norris, with Gasly another quarter-second behind.
Russell, Verstappen, Leclerc, Hadjar, Tsunoda, Albon, and Sainz complete the top 10.
Oscar Piastri, McLaren
Photo by: Peter Fox / Getty Images
We go again - Albon kicks off the final two minutes, followed by the McLarens.
Hadjar's car has been cleared, so we'll get going for a final two minutes and some practice starts.
Hadjar brings out red flag with Turn 3/4 spin
Hadjar lost the car on the exit, went on the exit kerb, and pirouetted across the gravel to hit the wall side on. It wasn't a huge hit and he'd been able to get going, but the car's rear wheels were simply stuck in the gravel.
Hadjar's come to a stop at the side of the road at Tamburello, and he's now waiting to get back on the road with clear track. Thing is, there's quite a bit of traffic to wait for.
He waits for Bortoleto to pass - but he's ended up beaching his VCARB 02 as he attempts to rejoin! Session paused.
Russell shapes up for a move on Colapinto into Tamburello but, since Alpine's new charger has DRS on the straights, he's had to back out of it.
"What is this guy doing, man? Using his DRS!" Verstappen complained when he was stuck behind.
"Something keeps touching my foot under braking in Turn 2," Verstappen reports, finding an unidentified object in the footwell.
He too has a battle with Colapinto, who's about to be raced by Russell...the Argentine is certainly getting his race simulations in!
Race pace for now has started in the 1m20s on these mediums. The McLarens are at the sharp end of that in the 1m20.0s/.1s, with many of the front runners a little further behind on the 1m20.2s.
Antonelli gets baulked a little bit by Tsunoda, as the Japanese driver becomes the traffic he's been annoyed by for most of the day.
Meanwhile, Norris has a little race with Colapinto through the opening sector - a nice way to scope out the overtaking zones...
Tsunoda on a rare traffic-free lap - he's currently P8, 0.092s off Verstappen.
Photo by: Peter Fox / Getty Images
It looks as though we're into long-run territory now after that deluge of soft-tyre runs; the field is switching back to mediums to see just how far the C5 - last year's soft - can go on race fuel.
"We need to work on the entry of Turns 5, 9, and 11 - it's critical I think," Leclerc says. So that's for Villeneuve, Piratella, and Acque Minerali stage 1.
Norris backed out of a lap after setting a purple middle sector, with a slide out of Rivazza 2.
Meanwhile, the Williams drivers seem a little less imbued with pace on softs - they're ninth and 10th at the moment, and seemingly struggling to keep the life in them towards the end of the lap.
Sainz looks a bit all over the place and only gets up to ninth. Antonelli aborts his own lap after jumping over the grass at Variante Alta, while Verstappen felt the rear dive towards the ground through Acque Minerali.
Gasly's found some pace, and he's got into third - 0.276s off the Piastri pace.
Tsunoda puts his lap in, and he's just 0.09s behind Verstappen - although both Red Bulls get slightly scruffy final sectors.
Hadjar splits them to go third, although Leclerc beats the Frenchman by 0.02s.
Norris then cruises around Rivazza to set a 1m15.318s to go quickest - 0.375s faster than Russell. Thought that was good? Try Piastri; he's up in the first two sectors, and buzzes across the line 0.025s ahead of his team-mate.
Verstappen's now on the road with softs, as Red Bull is celebrating its 400th GP start this weekend.
To commemorate that statistic, Red Bull has kept it low-key and is using numbers similar to those it used in its first F1 season...as in, the typeface - they've not assumed 14 and 15 for this weekend.
The Dutchman is faster in sector two over Russell, but loses a tenth in the final sector and is 0.042s behind the Briton.
And now, Russell has the track to himself - and he's come out with the all-new C6 tyres. He goes for a lap on the open road, and goes fastest with a 1m15.693s.
We're now faster than we were last year; Charles Leclerc topped FP2 with a 1m15.906s.
Colapinto explores the extremities of the Imola circuit and moves up to 10th, while Gasly goes fifth - 0.326s between them.
Everyone's in the pitlane now, save for Tsunoda and Russell.
After that opening flurry of laps, there's a bit of a lull - we've just got a replay of Hamilton encountering a Sauber and a Red Bull for traffic. The world's most expensive traffic jam, you might say...
Russell finds a 1m16.366s to go up to second, although the timings continue to change; Piastri draws closer to Norris, but both Williams drivers move into the top two positions; Sainz does a 1m15.992s on the mediums, with Albon 0.06s behind his team-mate.
Alonso gets heavily baulked into Tamburello by Colapinto; Aston driver is the only driver to do a lap on softs.
Norris then finds more time, doing a 1m15.952s. Whatever way you cut it, the Williams has a fair bit of speed so far this weekend.
And here come the McLarens - Piastri does a 1m16.526s, before Norris finds a 1m16.074s - both on mediums.
Verstappen splits the two with a 1m16.419s. We could do something silly and go "oh, GT3 driver Franz Hermann is looking good here" but everyone's doing that and it's no longer funny.
Gasly sets our first time in the 1m16s in this session, a 1m16.978s. Hadjar then does a 1m16.764s in the Racing Bulls.
Lawson splits the pair, while Sainz goes fourth early on with a set of used mediums.
FP2 begins at Imola
Bearman, Ocon, Colapinto, Gasly, and Hadjar are first to hit the road in this session. All on mediums, presumably a set they'll use later on in the session for longer running - although Alonso has popped out on a set of C6 softs.
We thought Hamilton was on the softs too, but timing screens misled us!
Notes from the stewards
Carlos Sainz has been awarded a €1000 fine for exceeding the pitlane speed limit in FP1, while Charles Leclerc is under investigation as his team is said to have not followed tyre pressure changing procedures.
FP2 coming up shortly
Just a few minutes until we're back under way at Imola. Expect the usual flurry of exploratory laps, qualifying sims, and then longer runs on the harder grades of tyres.
Stella on MCL39 attention over tyre management
In the team representatives' press conference, Andrea Stella remarked on the attention that McLaren's car has received over its tyre management capabilities.
McLaren CEO Zak Brown was spotted with a water bottle labelled with "tire water" - in deference to Red Bull's supposition that McLaren is using water to keep tyres cool. Oscar Piastri's car was subject to careful scrutineering after Miami, and was cleared on all technical regulations.
Oscar Piastri, McLaren
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images via Getty Images
"I would like to give the wrong answer here so that I put all our rivals down the wrong route," Stella said on how McLaren had got its MCL39 on strong footing. "The only thing I can say is that, over the years in Formula 1, I've learned that you have to focus on yourself and focus on the fundamentals.
"I think when you get too distracted by what the others are doing, it's normally an alarm bell that you ring in your factory and should remind you to go back to the basics. I'm afraid I've given the right answer, so I've helped my competitors!"
FP1 recap
Oscar Piastri was quickest in a closely contested FP1, where the top 18 were all within a second of the fastest lap.
Oscar Piastri, McLaren
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images via Getty Images
Lando Norris was 0.032s behind his team-mate, with Carlos Sainz another 0.02s behind, George Russell two-thousandths behind the Spaniard, and Lewis Hamilton a comparatively massive 0.096s off Piastri.
The session ended when Gabriel Bortoleto popped his Sauber into the wall at Rivazza, although the Brazilian had shown good pace and was ninth at the end of the session ahead of Nico Hulkenberg.
Gabriel Bortoleto, Sauber
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images via Getty Images
F1 Imola FP2 starting very soon...
And we're back - thanks again for joining us! We'll be bringing you the action from FP2 at Imola as it happens - starting at 5pm local time (so, in about 20 minutes' time.)
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