Russell fastest from Leclerc in dry final practice before F1 sprint
Russell posted a 1m19.457s on soft Pirelli tyres to end second practice just 0.081s clear of Red Bull’s Sergio Perez in dry conditions at the Autodromo Internationale Enzo e Dino Ferrari ahead of the first sprint race of the 2022 season.
Charles Leclerc was third-quickest for Ferrari, 0.283s down on Russell’s benchmark time, while Lewis Hamilton also featured inside the top five for Mercedes in fourth, half a second off his teammate.
Alpine’s Fernando Alonso was fifth ahead of the second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz, with reigning world champion Max Verstappen - who beat Leclerc to pole position for the sprint race in Friday qualifying - was seventh, almost a second off the pace.
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AlphaTauri pair Yuki Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly and Alfa Romeo’s F1 rookie Guanyu Zhou completed the rest of the top 10 order.
McLaren endured a troubled FP2 as Daniel Ricciardo was stuck in the garage while the team investigated an unspecified issue.
Teammate Lando Norris was restricted to just five laps of running and was sidelined for the majority of the session while McLaren worked on fixing a brake system issue.
Norris was able to rejoin the action for the closing minutes but ended up 18th and slowest of the drivers who set lap times.
Valtteri Bottas failed to make it out on track at all due to an issue on his Alfa Romeo.
The first sprint race of the season begins at 4.30pm local time (3.30pm BST), with early 2022 rivals Verstappen and Leclerc sharing the front row of the grid.
Points are on offer for the top eight positions with the results determining the grid for Sunday's grand prix.
