Qatar – EL2: Bottas fights back, Verstappen handicapped by his rear wing!

More at ease than during the first free practice session, Valtteri Bottas signed the revolt of Mercedes, during this new hour of driving in Qatar. The Finn largely dominated the debates, while Pierre Gasly (Alpha Tauri) once again slipped into second place, ahead of the championship leader, Max Verstappen, relegated to more than three tenths. A session marked by mechanical problems for everyone, at the start of the third race in as many weekends.

Gasly is in the zone – again! 👏

FP1:P2
FP2: P2 (with 2 mins to go) #QatarGP 🇶🇦 #F1 pic.twitter.com/K3LrfD557T

— Formula 1 (@F1) November 19, 2021

A busy session for the drivers

The first minutes of the session began with a few surprises, like the rookie Yuki tsunoda, teammate of Pierre Gasly, holder of the best time for a few minutes. The Japanese, definitely more at ease on the tracks he is discovering this season, showed an interesting pace in view of the battle raging in the championship between AlphaTauri and Alpine. All that remains is for him to finish his times in points, at the end of the next Grand Prix.

Very quickly, on medium tires, Max Verstappen significantly lowered the times on the Qatari track. The championship leader still experienced some problems with the rear wing, the flap of which was moving in all directions once the DRS opened in a straight line. The pilot Red Bull lost precious minutes of driving during this last session of the day, the only one in the night version.

It was also at that moment that the Mercedes decided to change direction somewhat. Starting with Valtteri Bottas, faster than his Dutch counterpart by four tenths, again on yellow tires, while Lewis Hamilton followed in the footsteps of his teammate, a few steps behind.

Behind, the battle on the track between Ferrari et McLaren continues, and in particular with Charles Leclerc et Daniel Ricciardo, the fastest on hard compounds, during the first part of the session.

Once the soft tires were on, the times continued to fall on all sides, especially for Bottas, omnipresent on the track with his Mercedes. Although the author of a few small errors, the Finn set the reference times with each new set of tires started, in the wake of his good performances over the last few race weekends.

The AlphaTauri also showed very interesting qualifying pace, beyond Gasly's second place in the standings, Yuki Tsunoda slipped to seventh in the session, more than half a second behind the leader. Conversely, the Alpine were much more discreet, as evidenced by the respective eleventh and twelfth beats ofEsteban Ocon et Fernando Alonso.

Note that Nikita mazepin did not take part in the second driving session of the day, forced to change chassis shortly before it began.

f1.com