After one of the biggest shocks in qualifying in recent times, as Kevin Magnussen took pole position for the sprint, another unlikely name topped the standings. It may not have been truly representative with unknown fuel loads, but the result meant that Ocon, who will be sixth for the sprint, gained an unexpected boost for the action that was to follow a few hours later. The Frenchman was 0.184 seconds quicker than Sergio Perez, with George Russell and Ocon team-mate Fernando Alonso completing the top four ahead of Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton. In contrast to the dark, near-dark conditions for the end of qualifying the previous afternoon, there were blue skies and sunshine mixed with a few gray clouds as the pit lane opened for the second and final free practice of the weekend. First up, in his final appearance at Interlagos, was Sebastian Vettel in the Aston Martin, soon followed by Logan Sargeant who would be Alex Albon’s Williams teammate next year. The American has been in action with plans to add another Super License point to his tally of 100km F1 kilometers – and will be aiming to reach his ultimate target of 40 when he completes his Formula 2 Championship campaign in Abu Dhabi next weekend . Sargeant was in Albon’s car, the Thai instead spent part of the session on the Sky F1 commentary box and the 21-year-old Floridian duly made the necessary distance, out of the car and back to the Williams hospitality suite with almost 10 minutes remaining. A mix of tire compounds were used by the front runners, Mercedes duo Russell and Hamilton on the soft and hard respectively, as Albon saw his soon-to-be former team-mate Nicholas Latifi bring out the first yellow flags for an outing. the grass. Russell set the early standard with a 1:14.916 as he left qualifying behind after suggesting his mechanics would be in for a long Friday night to strip the car to remove all the gravel from the corners and crevices. . The Briton was dethroned by Ocon’s soft Alpine approaching the halfway point, the Frenchman three tenths of a second quicker as most drivers switched to the red tire in which they are likely to contest the sprint. – weather permitting. Perez’s time on the hard tires stood exceptionally well in P4 and when he switched to the softs, the Mexican jumped to P2, but remained the best part of two tenths behind his former Force India team-mate. He was also three tenths clear of current team-mate Verstappen, with race sims clearly the order of the day in some places. That meant no major line-up changes in the closing stages, although Magnussen and the Haas team will be further encouraged to have both their cars in the top 10, the Dane in ninth – one place behind team-mate Mick Schumacher .
Times
1 Esteban OCON Alpine 1:14.6042 Sergio PEREZ Red Bull +0.1843 George RUSSELL Mercedes +0.3124 Fernando ALONSO Alpine +0.4455 Max VERSTAPPEN Red Bull +0.4946 Lewis HAMILTON HUM Mercedes +0.5300 USGN Mercedes +0. ,53000 USA 1.21110 Lando NORRIS McLaren +1.24711 Carlos SAINZ Ferrari +1.25212 Yuki TSUNODA AlphaTauri +1.26113 Charles LECLERC Ferrari +1.26414 Daniel RICCIARDO McLaren +1.39015 Valtteri BOTTAS Alfa Romeo +1.44316 Nicholas LATIFI Williams +1.57717 Lance STROLL Aston Martin +1.65918 Sebastian VETTEL +1.79619 ZHOU Guanyu Alfa Romeo +1.86420 Logan SARGEANT Williams +1.876
