FP2 REPORT | Leclerc leads unusual top-three in FP2 at COTA

Charles Leclerc topped an extended FP2 session with a laptime of 1:36.810, continuing Ferrari's strong showing at the United States Grand Prix weekend so far. Behind the Ferrari driver were a few unusual faces.

Unusual Top-Three at COTA

It was Ferrari's Charles Leclerc who led the way at Circuit of the Americas but was followed by Valtteri Bottas and Daniel Ricciardo. No, the McLaren and Alfa Romeo cars don't have a sudden increase in pace, so why the unusual order, you ask?

It's because the session was used as a Pirelli tyre test to give the teams the opportunity to try out prototype 2023-spec tyres in a mandated capacity by the FIA. Drivers who did not take part in FP1 were given limited time to put in a few laps on the current-spec tyres, leading the top-three drivers to set their fastest times not on the experimental tyre.

Behind the leading trio was Carlos Sainz on the prototype-spec tyre, who topped FP1, meaning that Ferrari are looking strong for this weekend.

Mick Schumacher, Lando Norris, Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, Pierre Gasly, and Sergio Perez followed behind.

Pirelli Tyre Test Interrupts Running

The reason why Friday's FP2 session was extended to 90 minutes as opposed to its usual hour-long running was the mandatory use of experimental Pirelli tyres for the 2023 season. Drivers who did not partake in FP1 due to the rookie-running were allowed to use the normal tyre compounds for the first half an hour of the session, leading to Charles Leclerc, Valtteri Bottas, and Daniel Ricciardo to top the session as the other drivers on the prototype tyre ran times generally two-seconds slower.

The teams were not allowed to make any setup changes to the car for the session, essentially making the running irrelevant to the rest of the Grand Prix weekend as no data gathered will correlate with the rest of the Grand Prix weekend, putting pressure on those who missed out on FP1.

FP3 tomorrow will be an extremely important session for those drivers as it will be their only representative running before they jump into Qualifying later that day.