McLaren repeats dominance at Imola: Piastri and Norris lead the second free practice

Imola, Italy. — The McLaren team once again set the pace at the Enzo e Dino Ferrari circuit during the second free practice session of the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, with Oscar Piastri leading the way and Lando Norris very close behind. Both repeated the 1-2 finish they had already achieved in the morning, confirming their strength at the start of the seventh weekend of the F1 calendar.

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In the best of his 28 laps, the World Championship leader, Piastri, set a time of 1:15.293, just 35 thousandths of a second faster than his teammate Norris, and with a 276 thousandths of a second advantage over the Frenchman Pierre Gasly (Alpine), third. Everyone achieved their times with the super-soft C6 tire, which debuts this season.

Sainz, Alonso and Colapinto: Mixed Performance for Spanish Speakers

• Carlos Sainz (Williams) placed tenth, 641 thousandths of a second behind Piastri’s time, after completing 29 laps.
• Franco Colapinto, in his return to F1 with Alpine as a replacement for Jack Doohan, was thirteenth, after running 29 times and finishing 751 thousandths of a second off the lead.
• Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin), who used medium tires unlike the rest, closed in fourteenth place with a best lap at 927 thousandths of a second behind the leader, after 21 laps.

Red flag and track conditions

The session was briefly interrupted with six minutes remaining due to a red flag caused by Frenchman Isack Hadjar (RB), who went off at the Tamburello corner. The temperature at the end of the session was 19°C in the air and 33°C on the track surface, stable conditions for the race simulations that dominated the end of the practice