I was an action packed Friday today with plenty of action during both sessions as we approach the end of the 2023 F1 season.

Practice One

It was an unusual grid during first practice with may drivers sitting on the pit wall.

This is because they all have to give up their seat during first practice for a rookie at least once this season. With 10 ten drivers still to fulfil this requirement before today, we saw a grid full of new and returning faces during fist practice. The two new drivers were this years runner up in Formula 3 Zak O’sullivan and Formula E champion Jake Dennis who drove the Redbull. We also saw Oliver Bearman, Isaac Hadjar, Pato Oward, Theo Pourchaire, Jack Doohan, Fredrick Vesti, Robert Shwartzman and Felipe Drugovich who have all taken part in at least one practice session in F1 before. The highest placed Rookie was last years F2 champion Felipe Drugovich who took his Aston Martin to P2!. This saw him finish ahead of more experienced drivers in better cars, such as, Carlos Sainz in the Ferrari and Oscar Piastry in the McLaren in a very impressive session for the Brazilian.

FP1 Results:

Pos	Name	Car	Best Time	Gap Leader
1	George Russell	Mercedes	1m26.072s
2	Felipe Drugovich	Aston Martin-Mercedes	1m26.360s	+0.288s
3	Daniel Ricciardo	AlphaTauri-Honda RBPT	1m26.433s	+0.361s
4	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	1m26.453s	+0.381s
5	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin-Mercedes	1m26.631s	+0.559s
6	Oscar Piastri	McLaren-Mercedes	1m26.665s	+0.593s
7	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	1m26.676s	+0.604s
8	Robert Shwartzman	Ferrari	1m26.703s	+0.631s
9	Pierre Gasly	Alpine-Renault	1m26.720s	+0.648s
10	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri-Honda RBPT	1m26.725s	+0.653s
11	Logan Sargeant	Williams-Mercedes	1m26.742s	+0.670s
12	Frederik Vesti	Mercedes	1m26.815s	+0.743s
13	Jack Doohan	Alpine-Renault	1m26.865s	+0.793s
14	Théo Pourchaire	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	1m27.093s	+1.021s
15	Patricio O’Ward	McLaren-Mercedes	1m27.114s	+1.042s
16	Jake Dennis	Red Bull-Honda RBPT	1m27.208s	+1.136s
17	Isack Hadjar	Red Bull-Honda RBPT	1m27.244s	+1.172s
18	Zak O’Sullivan	Williams-Mercedes	1m27.460s	+1.388s
19	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari	1m27.462s	+1.390s
20	Oliver Bearman	Haas-Ferrari	1m27.569s	+1.497s

Practice Two

It was business as usual during FP2 as the drivers who missed out during FP1 got back in the car for second practice. The session was paused only nine minutes in as Carlos Sainz spun his Ferrari into the turn 3 barriers.

After the crash Carlos Sainz reported that the spin was caused by the dirty air from Daniel Ricciardo ahead. The session got going again, for a few minutes before Nico Hulkenberg spun his Haas round coming out of turn one, his rear end wing clipping the barriers and bringing out the red flags once again. The clock continued to tick down meaning that when the session finally resumed there was only 16 minutes for the drivers to get their laps in. As the drivers lined up in the pit lane, Max Verstappen was eager to get out quickly as he overtook the Mercedes pair of Lewis Hamilton and George Russel in the pit lane tunnel.

But when the cars finally got on track it was Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc who topped the session with a lap time of 1m 24.809s, with Lando Norris 2nd and Max Verstappen 3rd as Ferrari look set to take second place of Mercedes in the constructors standings.

FP2 Results:

Pos	Name	Car	Best Time	Gap Leader
1	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1m24.809s
2	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	1m24.852s	+0.043s
3	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1m24.982s	+0.173s
4	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	1m25.024s	+0.215s
5	Sergio Pérez	Red Bull	1m25.112s	+0.303s
6	George Russell	Mercedes	1m25.122s	+0.313s
7	Guanyu Zhou	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	1m25.223s	+0.414s
8	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1m25.315s	+0.506s
9	Pierre Gasly	Alpine-Renault	1m25.321s	+0.512s
10	Oscar Piastri	McLaren-Mercedes	1m25.361s	+0.552s
11	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin-Mercedes	1m25.397s	+0.588s
12	Daniel Ricciardo	AlphaTauri-Honda RBPT	1m25.467s	+0.658s
13	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin-Mercedes	1m25.492s	+0.683s
14	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	1m25.566s	+0.757s
15	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri-Honda RBPT	1m25.669s	+0.860s
16	Alex Albon	Williams-Mercedes	1m26.081s	+1.272s
17	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari	1m26.413s	+1.604s
18	Logan Sargeant	Williams-Mercedes	1m26.659s	+1.850s
19	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	1m26.707s	+1.898s
20	Nico Hülkenberg	Haas-Ferrari	1m27.147s	+2.338s

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