Turkish GP FP2: Everything you need to know

Lewis Hamilton completed a clean sweep of the Friday practice sessions ahead of Formula 1’s Turkish Grand Prix, beating Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari in FP2.

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Key moments:

> Hamilton leads Leclerc

> Verstappen struggles to P5

> Gasly, Latifi and Mazepin spin

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Hamilton beat his morning benchmark to lead the second practice session at Istanbul Park on a 1m23.804s, 0.166s quicker than Leclerc.

Leclerc led the first half of the session on the medium tyres but could only improve by a tenth when he switched to the soft tyres.

Valtteri Bottas made it two Mercedes in the top three ahead of the Red Bull duo of Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen.

It’s a crucial weekend for Verstappen with championship leader Hamilton taking a 10-place grid penalty for Sunday’s race.

But the Dutchman struggled to find a comfortable car balance aboard his Red Bull and complained of understeer and vibrations throughout FP2.

Russian GP pole-sitter Lando Norris was sixth quickest ahead of the Alpines of Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon, the latter of which stalled on the grid during post-session practice starts.

The top 10 was completed by Pierre Gasly, who was caught out through the Turn 6 left-hander and lost control of his AlphaTauri with just over 10 minutes of the session remaining, and the Alfa Romeo of Antonio Giovinazzi.

Gasly spins off and flat-spots his tyres out of Turn 6

He's sat in P9 as things stand#TurkishGP 🇹🇷 #F1 pic.twitter.com/v7yUxHLzIt

— Formula 1 (@F1) October 8, 2021

Carlos Sainz will start the Turkish GP from the back of the grid after an engine change and clearly didn’t focus on one-lap speed in FP2, with the 13th-fastest time, one second behind team-mate Leclerc.

Kimi Raikkonen was furious with his Alfa Romeo team after his water system leaked in his cockpit and it led to a lengthy stop in his garage to repair it.

“It’s the most simple part of the car and we can’t fix it,” the 2007 world champion fumed.

Raikkonen ended the session 15th-fastest ahead of his former Ferrari team-mate Sebastian Vettel who was unhappy with the balance of his Aston Martin.

Latifi loses the back end at Turn 9, but recovers back to the track#TurkishGP 🇹🇷 #F1 pic.twitter.com/WwcryE83S6

— Formula 1 (@F1) October 8, 2021

Nicholas Latifi lost the rear of his Williams turning into Turn 9 and spun early in the session and then did a similar thing in the closing moments, but did manage to finish just ahead of his team-mate George Russell in 17th place.

Nikita Mazepin had a small spin at the end of FP2. He was 20th and slowest behind his Haas team-mate Mick Schumacher.

Practice 2 Results