Sainz overtakes Leclerc and leads TL2 back to race pace for the Austrian F1 GP

The layout of Formula 1 sprint race weekends presents a different kind of free practice layout. Thus, the TL2 held on Saturday morning (9) was of that kind: almost no search for lap times, since qualifying passed yesterday, and only work aimed at the race. In the fine tuning before the sprint race, the one who got the best was Carlos Sainz.

TL2 ends up showing what teams can do in certain specific race circumstances. Sainz and Charles Leclerc, for example, were the top two drivers on soft tires. Max Verstappen, third, was faster on medium than on soft. The same was true for Sergio Pérez and the Alpine duo, Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon.

In any case, Ferrari has again shown that it is competitive against Red Bull. It remains to be seen how it will react starting behind in the sprint race, where an overtake has the potential to change the whole grid story for Sunday's race.

Mercedes can say they had a satisfactory practice session. After seeing both cars crash on Friday and chasing time to participate in TL2, George Russell managed to get through 30 laps and showed speed. Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton, despite debuting with less than 15 minutes on the clock, still leaked a dozen or so laps.

In the end, Sainz led with the company of Leclerc. Verstappen came third and opened a list with Alonso, Ocon, Pérez, Russell, Valtteri Bottas, Hamilton, and Lando Norris in the top-10.

GRANDE PRÊMIO follows LIVE and INREAL TIME all the activities of the weekend's Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix. The sprint race is scheduled for later today at 11:30 am (GMT-3).

Check out how TL2 went:

The temperature and weather, in general, were no impediments to a normal performance on Saturday morning, when the clock struck 7:30 a.m. (Brasília) for the start of the second and final free practice for the Austrian GP. Sun in the sky between a few clouds and thermometers above 20°C ambient and 30°C on the asphalt.

TL2 on sprint race weekends is quite different from the rest of the events. It usually serves a job that has a lot of the settings of qualifying simulation. This fair, however, qualifying had been over for almost 24 hours. In front of the activity, only races: the sprint and the official one.

Which didn't mean that the track would be empty, something that didn't happen at all. As soon as the clock went off, Ferrari, Aston Martin and Lando Norris appeared on soft tires. Haas and Alfa Romeo preferred to invest in medium. It was even from the latter, with Valtteri Bottas, that the first timed lap was set.

An interesting issue in the activity was Mercedes. After the two cars crashed in different bumps in Q3 of qualifying, both were still in the garage while the team did a lot of tinkering. Lewis Hamilton had received a new chassis and watched Mercedes try to patch up the destroyed floorboard, while George Russell had changed the front wing and a few other components.

A far cry from the laps seen in yesterday's pole position fight, Norris was at the front of the grid when he clocked 1min10s670 - almost 6s off the pace that put Max Verstappen in the top spot of the sprint race.

Next, the Ferrari drivers would go under the 1min10s mark: Charles Leclerc better than Carlos Sainz. Let it be said: despite the installation of soft, the laps of both were on medium tires. But Verstappen was on soft tires to set the first fast lap: 1min09s067.

After 15 minutes, Russell was able to get out onto the track. He did an installation lap, came back into the pits and went out again. The second time, yes, staying on the track to post laps on the timesheet. Meanwhile, Leclerc wondered if something was wrong with the engine. Suspense for a driver who has seen two engines blow up on the track in recent races.

In addition to Hamilton, the Alpine drivers also failed to appear on the track after 20 minutes. Soon after, however, Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso would show up at Spielberg, while Hamilton remained in the pits.

Despite the delay in getting on track, the two Alpine cars showed speed right from the start. Pierre Gasly, who had the best first sector of the practice session, also had good pace.

At the halfway mark of TL2, Verstappen was leading and had Sainz, Russell, Alonso, Pérez, Leclerc, Norris, Zhou, Ocon, and Gasly in the top-10. Hamilton hadn't even shown up in costume yet.

Already the leader, Max decided to resume participation, now with medium tires, and immediately improved his own by registering 1min08s799. Now, however, it was Leclerc's turn to respond using soft tires and take the lead by lapping in 1min08s660. Behind Leclerc and Verstappen were the Alpine duo: Alonso in third and Ocon in fourth.

With 20 minutes to go, Hamilton appeared in the garage wearing a helmet! It was going to be enough to get on track at least a little, to get some mileage before the sprint race.

Sainz would also come on soft tires to beat Charles' time and take the lead by doing 1min08s610. Meanwhile, Hamilton finally, with 14 minutes to go, would take to the track and soon paint himself ninth. Russell took the opportunity to test the hard tires, as did Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll. After the disastrous Saturday, the Aston Martin duo appeared in 11th and 13th positions - Stroll better than Vettel.

But that was it, there was nothing else to happen but a brief escape of Leclerc from the track. Sainz led and had his teammate behind. Verstappen was third, followed by Alonso and Ocon before Perez. Russell, Bottas, Hamilton and Norris rounded out the top-10.

F1 2022, Austrian GP, Spielberg, TL2: