Turkey, FP2: Verstappen continues to set the pace at low-grip Istanbul Park

Leclerc 2nd, Bottas 3rd

After topping the morning timesheet at Istanbul Circuit, Max Verstappen repeated his P1 performance in the second practice session for Sunday’s Turkish Grand Prix as drivers once again struggled with a lack of grip on the resurfaced track.

Verstappen set an FP2 benchmark of 1:28.330 to eclipse Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc by four tenths of a second. Valtteri Bottas was third, with Mercedes team-mate and championship leader Lewis Hamilton fourth, over eight tenths of a second off the pace. Verstappen’s best time was still more than three seconds off Sebastian Vettel’s pole time in 2011, the last time F1 visited this circuit.

On medium tyres, Bottas set the early pace taking P1 with a time of 1:38.443 and then steadily lowering the bar 1:34.940. Verstappen eventually moved ahead, though, the Dutchman also using medium tyres to set a lap of 1:32.836. The Red Bull Racing driver’s team-mate Alex Albon then took the top spot by almost a second and the Thai drive dropped the P1 time further still with a lap of 1:30.872.

Shortly before thee half-hour mark drivers began to make the move to soft tyres and with around 40 minutes gone Leclerc went quickest on a 1m30.751. Ten minutes later Albon moved ahead with a lap of 1:29.363.

Mercedes then made their move to the red-banded rubber, eventually demoting Albon to fifth, and Verstappen too went out on the soft tyres. The Dutch driver took top spot with a tour of 1:28.984, before being outpacedf by Leclerc, but the Red Bull man stayed out for a long run on soft compounds tyres during which he set the best time of the day.

Albon fineshed ahead of AlphaTauri pair Kvyat and Pierre Gasly, with Vettel and Lance Stroll taking eighth and ninth. Lando Norris, who completed a long run on the hard tyres in the opening phase of the session, rounded out the top 10.