George Russell fastest for Mercedes in dry final practice before F1 sprint

Mercedes topped the timesheets for the first time this season as George Russell set the pace in the final F1 practice session before the Imola sprint race. 
George Russell (GBR)
George Russell (GBR)

Russe🌞ll 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 Interna🐻tionale 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 fe෴atured 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. 

AlphaTauri pair Yuki Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly and Alfa Romeo’s F1 rookie Guanyu Zhou completed the res♈t of the top 10 order. 

McLaren endured a troubled FP2 as Daniel Ricciar﷽do 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. 𝓰;

Valtteri Bottas (FIN) Alfa Romeo F1 Team C42 - not running in the second practice session as the car is repaired. Formula
Valtteri Bottas (FIN) Alfa Romeo F1 Team C42 - not running in the second practice session as…

Valtteri Bottas failed to make it out on track at all due toꦍ an issue on his A🔥lfa Romeo.

The first sprint race of the season begins at 4.♏30pm local time (3.30pm BST), with early 2022ಞ rivals Verstappen and Leclerc sharing the front row of the grid. 

Points are on offer for the top eight🦩 positions with the results determiꦯning the grid for Sunday's grand prix.

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